LITTLE ROCK — A new Broadway Bridge resplendent in red, white and blue paint would serve as homage to the nation’s war veterans, at the same time giving the region the elusive signature crossing some have sought under a scenario that Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines said he will unveil publicly later this month.

That design is only one of a number of options, Villines said in an interview last week, and his ideas are evolving as he gathers feedback from a series of informal meetings he has held. But the focus seems to be on the red, white and blue scheme, according to those who have met recently with the long-time county judge.

“I can’t say, ‘This is it,’” Villines said. “I’m trying to figure out a way to address all [the] concerns: Is there a way to deal with the structure we have and still do something special?”

Villines’ idea is a new twist in the saga over replacing the 90-year-old crossing over the Arkansas River between Little Rock and North Little Rock.

In September, aftermonths of wrangling, the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department reached a broad agreement with Villines and the mayors of Little Rock and North Little Rock on a concept that incorporates two arches into the design of the new bridge and that would require local entities to cover any costs above the $58 million state highway officials have estimated. A twin arch will cost about $20 million more than a more economical plategirder bridge that was one of the department’s original proposals more than a year ago.

The precise total the cities and county would have to pay remains to be negotiated.

Still, the agreed-to design is a far cry from the signature structure some community leaders and activists envisioned almost three years ago when the department disclosed it would either heavily reconstruct or replace the structurally deficient and functionally obsolete bridge. While department officials insist it remains a safe crossing, they say the rising costs to maintain it make replacing it feasible.

The present bridge was opened to traffic on March 14, 1923, having been dedicated three months earlier to Arkansans who died in World War I with the “greatest parade in Little Rock history,” according to newspaper accounts at the time.

For the new bridge, some initially championed a bridge design similar to the majestic U.S. 82 bridge across the Mississippi River between Chicot County and Greenville, Miss. That $284-million bridge opened in 2010, and already is a landmark as the longest cable-stayed bridge on the Mississippi.

Still others pointed to the Trinity Bridges project in Dallas, which used millions of dollars in privately raised money to augment federal and state money in the redevelopment of the Trinity River area of downtown Dallas.

The project included the design of two bridges by Santiago Calatrava of Spain, an internationally acclaimed architect and engineer. The first of the two - the $120 million Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, featuring a central arch reaching 400 feet into the air - also opened in 2010.

But Villines said “we have to figure out a way to do that within limits we can afford. This community does not have the resources, public or private, to raise another $30 [million] or $40 million. But I think there is a way to use color to create something special for this community and beyond.”

State highway officials say painting bridges in colors that have local preference isn’t uncommon and doesn’t add exorbitantly to a bridge’s cost. Whether it is painted or not will have to be decided before the bridge is designed because the decision will drive what grade of steel is used, they said.

Of the roughly 7, 200 bridges on the state highway system, between 2,500 and 2,900 have steel girders or superstructures and are painted as part of a program to preserve or extend the life of the bridge, said Randy Ort, a department spokesman. The rest are concretedeck bridges, he said.

About 750 of the steel bridges use a grade of steel, known as 588 steel, that has certain properties that allow a thin coat of rust to form and then stop, Ort said. “Itbecomes self-sealing,” which protects the steel from deteriorating, he said.

The other steel bridges are painted. Every year, the department’s heavy bridge maintenance crews repaint about 15 bridges, primarily interstate overpasses. Those crews typically don’t do anything more than clean the bridge and paint on an overcoat. “We hope to get 10 years out of that,” Ort said.

The larger bridges that are painted are contracted to outside firms because the work is more extensive, including the erecting of a containment system to capture the old paint when it is removed. Three different coats then are applied, Ort said. Those projects are expected to last at least 20 years, he said.

The department sets aside about $3 million annually for the large bridge painting projects, Ort said.

The last bridge on the Arkansas River connecting Little Rock and North Little Rock to be cleaned and painted was the Interstate 30 bridge in 2001 at a cost of $379,000, Ort said.

The standard bridge color is aluminum, but the department uses different colors at times. The U.S. 270 overpass in Hot Springs is teal and blue, which is the colors of that city’s logo. A bridge in Conway is painted purple, which is one of the official colors of the University of Central Arkansas.

The Interstate 630/Interstate 430 interchange modification project is using two tones of brown, Ort said.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 11/12/2012