State has doubts on Arkadelphia bypass plan

ARKADELPHIA — On the city’s east side, the 52-year-old Ouachita River Bridge on Arkansas 51 approaches its retirement with each crossing car, pickup or logging truck.

The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department deemed the 202-footlong, 25-foot-wide steel truss bridge “functionally obsolete” because of its narrow width, and has earmarked $7.8 million in federal and state funding for the bridge’s replacement, which could begin in 2013.

“We agree with the Highway Department the bridge should be replaced,” said Arkadelphia City Manager Jimmy Bolt. But that, he said, is as far as the agreement goes. In a situation similar to one with the Broadway Bridge in Little Rock, state officials want to replace a bridge at about the same spot it stood, but local officials want the replacement built elsewhere.

Bolt and other residents say the Arkansas 51 bridge should be part of a larger “southerly bypass project”around the town of 10,000. Bypass-backers say it would remove the logging truck traffic from downtown streets. The state, however, says the bridge’s replacement remains the area’s highest priority and doubts a bypass project would fully alleviate the city’s traffic problem and could cost double.

“We’re not sure that right now this way - mixing these two - is the right thing to do,” said Randy Ort, a Highway Department spokesman.

The Highway Department has in place a bridge plan that could be bid-ready by January 2013, Ort said. That plan would send the bridge southeast from Caddo Street over the northeast corner of New Ouachita River Park, the Union Pacific rail line and adjoin with Arkansas 51 several hundred yards later.

The current bridge, which is eligible to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places, will be converted to a pedestrian bridge and will link walking trails and two parks on either side of the river, city and state officials say.

But city officials say replacing the bridge where the state plans to won’t diffuse the current problem posed by a steady procession of logging trucks that roll through downtown.

Each day, about 21 trucks from K.W. Jester Logging in Gurdon pass through Arkadelphia from pine forests east of the Ouachita River, bound for sawmills south of Arkadelphia. They are usually carrying loads of from 20 to 30 logs that stretch several feet over their trailer’s end.

In town, truckers are forced to negotiate tricky left and right turns that require waiting at intersections long enough for both lanes to clear so the truck can pass.

“When they get into a city like that, they’re on their tippy toes,” said Stan Rogers, a trucking mechanic for Jester.

In the last month, Rogers has had to replace three tires and a wheel solely because the truck’s wheels strike the curbs during difficult turns.

A bypass, Rogers said, might shave some time off of the truckers’ hauls, but more importantly, it would give them more peace of mind knowing they wouldn’t have to take their 27.5-ton loads through Arkadelphia.

A possible bypass plan reviewed by the state would cross the river south of Ouachita River Park and pass over the rail line and U.S. 67 before coming down on the highway’s west side, joining there.

Downtown businesses have also pushed for a bypass due to the noise and vibration caused by the trucks rolling down U.S. 67 South.

Bill Wright, regional CEO of Southern Bank Corp in Arkadelphia, moved four of six offices off of the building’s eastern side, which sits less than 5 feet from U.S. 67.

“Nobody can hear when they're on the phone and a truck goes by,” Wright said.

While he said he respects the truck drivers and their job, Wright said he knows it would be better for all parties if a bypass were put in place.

Plus, Wright and Bolt say the city could use the bypass as an attraction for prospective timber companies eyeing the region.

Bolt and Mayor Chuck Hollingshead say a bypass has been part of the city’s long range planning goal for some time, and with the Ouachita River Bridge due for replacement, they see it as “a once in a lifetime” opportunity to get a new bridge and accomplish their bypass goal.

For a time, Little Rock officials saw the pending replacement of the Broadway Bridge as such an opportunity, and lobbied the Highway Department to build the bridge upriver at Chester Street. The state dashed that plan when it said building the bridge elsewhere would cause the federal bridge replacement funds to be lost.

With the Arkadelphia bridge, the state has concerns that building a bypass would double the bridge replacement cost and would all but eliminate an existing roadway, Ort said.

Scott Bennett, state highways and transportation director, said in a letter assessing the bypass option for Arkadelphia that one bypass possibility would place costs between $15 million and $18 million.

That bypass project would not be eligible for federal bridge replacement funds, which would cover about 80 percent of the plan the state has developed to replace the bridge.

Those funds, Ort explained, could only be used if a replacement is built and the old bridge is taken out of service.

In a letter to city officials, Bennett said that because little of Arkadelphia’s traffic is generated south of the city, the proposed bypass would not alleviate heavy traffic in downtown.

In the coming weeks, though, the Highway Department will commission a study into a bypass alternative, Ort said.

Meanwhile, Bolt wrote Bennett requesting time for the city to pursue funding opportunities for a bypass. On July 3, the Arkadelphia Board of Directors passed a resolution requesting relocation for the Ouachita River Bridge.

In August, Bolt will assemble a task force of business and community leaders to gauge public support for the bypass and possibly influence the bridge’s future.

Even if there’s no change in bridge replacement planning, Bolt and Ort both say the new bridge would be an improvement because it solves a flooding problem just east of the existing bridge.

That’s a good change, Bolt and Hollingshead say, but they would still prefer a bypass.

“You can’t do anything if you don’t try,” Hollingshead said.

Bridge or bypass: State, city weigh Ouachita River Bridge's fate The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department and Arkadelphia officials have debated how the Arkansas 51 bridge could best cross the Ouachita River. The city wants a southerly bypass that would connect Arkansas 51 with U.S. 67 and allow logging trucks to bypass the city's downtown as they head south to area sawmills. The Highway Department has a plan it says would cost less and could be bid out by 2013. Officials will study the bypass route in the coming weeks.