BENTONVILLE — Residents of southwestern Benton County may finally look forward to using of a pair of bridges that have long been closed to traffic.
“The key word is ‘finally,’” said Justice of the Peace Kurt Moore of Siloam Springs.
Benton County bridges across the Illinois River on Fisher Ford Road and across Osage Creek on Colonel Meyers Road have each been closed for several years. The Fisher Ford Bridge was closed to traffic in April 2005. Colonel Meyers Bridge was closed in May 2008, according to information from the county.
Moore said he’s gotten complaints about the bridges for all of those years.
“It started the day after it closed,” Moore said of Fisher Ford Bridge. “I’ve been getting calls from people ever since.”
County Judge Bob Clinard said the Fisher Ford Bridge replacement is among a number of Northwest Arkansas transportation projects recently approved for federal funding. The project is eligible to receive up to $1,120,000 in federal money with the county paying 20 percent of the final cost. A final vote on the list of projects is set for this week, Clinard said, but this last vote is just a formality.
At A Glance
Bridge History
Fisher Ford Bridge over the Illinois River was built in 1903 by the Leavenworth Bridge Co. The total length of the bridge is 201 feet. Colonel Meyers Bridge across Osage Creek was built in 1911 by the Youngstown Bridge Co. The total length of the bridge is 127 feet.
Source: Benton County
“On Fisher Ford Bridge, the state director of the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department has signed off with the bridge and given it a bridge number,” Clinard said.
The current estimated construction cost of Fisher Ford Bridge is about $1 million. Clinard said, putting the county’s share at about $200,000. The county also is required to pay for the engineering, right of way acquisition and other elements of the Fisher Ford Bridge project, with an estimated cost of about $385,000, raising the county’s cost on the project to about $585,000.
“The original estimate on replacing that bridge was between $1.2 million and $1.6 million,” Clinard said. “We’re still going to be better off by about $650,000.”
Clinard said the state also has approved the Colonel Meyers Bridge project. It has been designated as a state aid project for Benton County. As a state aid project, Clinard said, federal money is available to pay 80 percent of the cost, and the state will pay another 18 percent of the cost, leaving the county to fund just 2 percent of the cost or roughly $20,000.
Scott Stober, county public services administrator, said with the involvement of federal and state government agencies, the schedule of work on the bridges is out of the county’s control. Stober estimates the bridge projects will be bid out late summer or early fall with the work completed sometime in 2014.
Moore said getting the two bridges replaced should be a beginning of a program to get the county’s bridges repaired and in good shape for many years of use. He said a proposal to use money from the recently approved state sales tax, which is dedicated for transportation needs, and money from the county’s reserves to increase the pace of work on county roads and bridges should help reach that goal.
“That’s the whole point of the accelerated road program,” Moore said, “to get to the point where we’re not putting out fires all the time and where we’re trying to maintain what we have instead.”