The Interstate 430 bridge over the Arkansas River was closed briefly Thursday after a dock with three boats attached broke away from a river bank and was swept toward one of the bridge’s supports.
The dock and boats crashed into the support, lodging between the support and the bank on the Little Rock side of the river, but did not damage the bridge. Traffic on the bridge was reopened within minutes - “as soon as the highway department got there,” said Capt. Randy Hickmon, a spokesman for the Little Rock Fire Department.
“They said that amount of debris is not going to do a thing,” Hickmon said.
Said Randy Ort, a spokesman for the Highway and Transportation Department, “The bridge is open. Wewould not have reopened it if we had concerns.”
Hickmon said a woman was securing a boat to one of the docks at River Valley Marina, about two miles west of the bridge on the Little Maumelle River, when the dock came loose and floated into the rainswollen river about 10:30 a.m. Thursday. The woman escaped unharmed, he said.
D eb ra H u d s o n , wh o owns the marina along with her husband, Ray, said the dock was one of three that broke away from the marina as it was struck by mud and debris Thursday morning.
Seven or eight boats, including some houseboats where families live, floated away along with the docks, Hudson said.
“It’s just a mess,” Hudson said. “We’ve got families that are displaced, andit’s Christmas Eve.”
As one of the docks, with a houseboat and two smaller boats attached, traveled toward the bridge, a Little Rock Fire Department battalion chief decided to close traffic on the bridge, Hickmon said. Little Rock firefighters blocked the northbound lanes, and Maumelle police blocked the southbound lanes, he said.
“Any time we have a substantial amount of debris that’s coming toward a bridge, we want to take precautions,” Hickmon said.
Firefighters and Pulaski County sheriff ’s deputies in boats were dispatched to rescue anyone who might have been on the boats or dock and to intercept the debris if it had headed towardMurray Lock and Dam.
Hickmon said officials with the Army Corps of Engineers were satisfied that the dock was securely lodged for the time being. Itwill be up to the owners to remove the debris, he said.
The American Red Cross opened a shelter in a classroom building at St. Mark Baptist Church at 5722 W. 12th St. in Little Rock, said Brigette Williams, Red Cross spokesman. Several peoplewho live in the houseboats, along with other people displaced during Thursday’s flooding, were expected to stay in the shelter Thursday night, Williams said.
Information for this article was contributed by Noel E. Oman of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 12 on 12/25/2009