Pedestrian bridge on track for 2010

AmyJo Brown

Little Maumelle River span to link trails

LITTLE ROCK — Construction of a $5 million pedestrian and bicyclist bridge over the Little Maumelle River in west Little Rock is planned to begin as early as late summer and be completed by the end of 2010, Pulaski County officials recently announced.

The bridge will complete a final link in the trail system that crosses the Arkansas River, connecting Little Rock’s Arkansas River Trail and North Little Rock’s Millennium Trail to the 1,000-acre Two Rivers Park more than 6 miles away.

“It’s an incredibly big deal, not only for bicyclists but for the community in general,” said Ken Gould, chairman of the Little Rock Bicycle Friendly Community Committee.

The bridge, whose design has been in the works for the past several years, is being built about a year sooner than expected - an indirect beneficiary of the infusion of federal stimulus money into the state, said Sherman Smith, Pulaski County’s public-works director.

About 80 percent or $4 million of the project’s costs are being paid by Metroplan, the longrange transportation planning agency for central Arkansas. It received $14.2 million of the $351.5 million in stimulus dollars designated for state transportation projects.

The stimulus money allowed the transportation agency to reallocate its original budget to include more projects on its waiting list, including the bridge over the Little Maumelle River, said Richard Magee, Metroplan’s deputy director.

The county’s share of the costs, about $1 million, was budgeted this year just in case the county got lucky, Smith said.

The county’s $15 million road and bridge budget, made up of revenue from fuel taxes, property taxes and federal and state sources, are legally committed to transportation projects and cannot be spent on other county projects.

If the state match hadn’t worked out, the $1 million in this year’s budget would have been used toward other transportation needs, he said.

Smith said the county will likely put out bids for the proj-ect in the next two months.

“We’re hoping to be under construction by late summer,” he said.

The bridge, once built, will be accessed near a parking lot at the end of the Arkansas River Trail near Interstate 430, eliminating a 6.5-mile detour through heavily traveled roads to Two Rivers Park.

It will be 400 feet above the Arkansas River’s high-water mark and span 1,750 feet end to end. The Big Dam Bridge, in comparison, spans 4,226 feet end to end, Smith said. The $12.8 million Big Dam Bridge opened in May 2008.

Like the Big Dam Bridge, however, the bridge over the Little Maumelle River will be 14 feet wide with similar railing and security lighting.

Plans for the bridge will be presented to Metroplan’s board of directors March 25 for a design review, Magee said.

Smith said he is excited about the project’s progress.

With the exception of the Rock Island Bridge adjacent to the Clinton Presidential Center, “this will complete the major river crossings that we have on our master plan for bicycle and pedestrian trails,” Smith said.

The opening of the Rock Island Bridge, whose renovation was initially planned for the November 2004 opening of the Clinton library, is under the control of the William J. Clinton Foundation. The foundation hasdelayed the work, citing design challenges and cost increases from $5 million to about $10 million.

Jordan Johnson, a spokesman for the foundation, said it intends to reveal its future plans for the bridge next month, in response to a request by Little Rock cityofficials last fall to see the preliminary plans and design for the bridge.

“We’re in the initial stages of developing the update for the city,” Johnson said. “I don’t want to get too specific because I don’t want to tip my hat.”

No firm date for the presentation has been set, he said.

Mary Wells, president of the Little Rock Roadrunners Club, whose members include about 150 households, said she was excited to hear the bridge over the Little Maumelle River will be built.

“I didn’t know there was any recent progress,” she said. “It’s great to know that. Any moreconnecting we can do in Little Rock for pedestrians is important.”

Smith said the county is still developing plans for trails from Two Rivers Park to Pinnacle Mountain State Park - the ultimate goal of the urban trail system. The 2,000-acre state park is also along the Arkansas River.

He said the county is several years from completing those trails.

Once they are in place, he said, people will be able to travel from downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock to Talimena State Park, near Talihina, Okla. - more than 200 miles - using only the trails.

Arkansas, Pages 9, 18 on 03/18/2009

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