At A Glance
Bridge Mission
The mission of the Highway Department’s Bridge Division is to provide plans and specifications for safe, efficient, cost effective, and aesthetically pleasing structures, evaluate existing structures for safety and function and manage and monitor present and future needs of existing bridges.
Source: Arkansas Highway And Transportation Department
BENTONVILLE — Benton County Judge Bob Clinard said he will not comply with a state order to close Hickory Creek Bridge in the far southeastern corner of the county.
Clinard received a “Notice of Bridge Closure” from the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department in December. The letter, which was dated Dec. 20, said Highway Department employees inspected the bridge and determined it was unsafe.
“The inspection found an asphalt overlay that has been placed on the bridge,” the letter stated. “Our analysis has determined the girders are unable to safely carry a minimum vehicular load of three tons with this additional load.”
“The bridge shall be closed immediately to protect the safety of the traveling public,” the letter stated, with that sentence underlined and printed in bold type.
The letter went on to say, “Barriers such as earthen embankments, deep trenches, or fencing shall be used to prevent traffic from crossing the bridge. Department personnel will contact you to ensure your prompt attention to this serious situation and that acceptable barriers will be used. Federal regulations require this structure to remain closed to traffic until it has been satisfactorily remediated or replaced.”
The letter went on to say the county needed to notify the Highway Department in writing of the closing or remediation, adding “other bridge elements are also in poor condition and my require attention in the future.”
Clinard said he’s asked the state for more information on the results of its inspection and has received nothing. Clinard’s own look at the bridge, coupled with an inspection by county Road Department employees and an engineer working for the county, led him to question the state’s order.
“They have told us we have to close it,” Clinard said. “I’m not going to close it. We disagree with their findings. They don’t have or won’t provide us with any information on their inspection. They don’t have or won’t provide us with any engineering calculations. Now, since there’s so much controversy, and the bridge is very old, we’re going to start the process of replacing it. When we’re replacing it, we will do a temporary bypass to minimize the inconvenience. But we’re not going to close it.”
Scott Stober, county public services administrator, said the Road Department laid the asphalt on the bridge in 2012. Stober said he’s seen no problems with the bridge even while standing underneath it with heavy trucks driving across.
“It didn’t vibrate at all, so we’re not concerned because of the asphalt,” Stober said.
Marc Trollinger, Benton County’s fire marshal and fire chief of the Hickory Creek Volunteer Fire Department, said he’s crossed the bridge with fire trucks many times and has never seen any indication it’s unsafe. Trollinger said closing the bridge would cause some problems, but nothing that couldn’t be overcome.
“The first thing I did when I heard they wanted to close the bridge was I went out there and drove the alternate routes,” Trollinger said. “There is another way in there, but you have to go into Washington County. It’s about 1.1 miles farther from the fire station.”
Trolling said there are about 136 structures in the area and about 1,000 residents. He said the fire department has a substation and some volunteers live in the Pleasure Heights area, so some fire service responders and equipment would be nearby, but any mutual aid response in the past has crossed the bridge.
“It’s going to delay some things, but it’s nothing we can’t deal with,” he said.
Clinard said the county has no engineering specifications on the bridge from the time it was built — about 50 years ago by some estimates — and so replacing it is a reasonable compromise. Stober said the county’s bridge designs would raise the weight limit on the bridge from three tons to 22 tons, removing any concerns about the weight limits in normal traffic use. Clinard said he will continue talking to the Highway Department about its bridge inspection program and how it arrives at recommendations.
“We need to kind of get together on that,” he said.