Little Rock plans to pay for lighting on a new overpass that will replace the aging portion of Roosevelt Road that crosses over the railroad tracks near the State Fairgrounds. But the project will mean more than just new lights and a smoother car ride.
The Arkansas Livestock Show Association, which operates the fair, will lose the front gate of the fairgrounds to a land acquisition needed for the road project some time next year. The group is using the loss to start a master-planning process that will likely create a new layout and determine how the fairgrounds will expand over the next decade.
The association will seek public comment on the master plan once it is completed in a few months.
Neither the changes in the plan nor the Roosevelt Road construction projectwill affect the 2013 Arkansas State Fair and Livestock Show, which is scheduled for October 11-20.
The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department will construct the overpass. The Little Rock Board of Directors voted to enter into a partnership to pay for lighting along the overpass because the Highway Department requires municipalities to fund such additions to its projects.
Ronny Loe, deputy director of Little Rock’s Department of Public Works, said the city will pay for the decorative lighting, which was designed in part by fairgrounds staff. He said the project has an estimated cost of $150,000, but the amount could change once the cityaccepts a bid for the work.
“The exact source of funding hasn’t been identified yet,” Loe said. “There are several pots of money that could be used. But theHighway Department will come back when they have a bid, and we’ll know the exact amount and be able to move forward.”
Highway Department spokesman Danny Straessle said the portion of Roosevelt Road being replaced is about 560 feet long and was built in 1935, and it has a daily traffic count of about 12,500 cars.
The 660-foot replacement span will be just south of the current overpass. Because of the new overpass location, Straessle said the roadway will also have to be shifted accordingly.
“It’s going to be a radical change for that area, and we’ve been working with both the State Fairgrounds and with neighbors to keep them informed and to get their input,” he said. “But it’s a needed change. That structure has outlived its life.”
Straessle said the city asked for the road to remain open during construction, which is slated to start late this year and will last for up to two years.
The lighting will be an important feature for the community, which has been struggling to deal with a reputation for criminal activity.
In June, Jaxson Guinn, 19, was shot in the chest and killed near 27th and Battery streets, two blocks from the east side of the fairgrounds. Earlier this year, a woman was found shot in the leg at a Roosevelt Road motel, and a suspect in the shooting said he found her on the RooseveltRoad overpass scheduled to be rebuilt, although parts of the suspect’s story were later found to be untrue.
Years of frustration with neighborhood crime, aging buildings and lack of space prompted the livestock association to seek a new location for the fair in 2009. Several cities responded with proposals, but the association voted last year to stay in Little Rock, citing the cost of building at a new location.
Little Rock leaders offered some incentives for the fair to stay, including $3 million in funding from the citywide sales tax increase that started in 2012. The money will come from the three-eighths of a percent portion that is dedicated to infrastructure and capital improvements.
The city plans to give the money to the livestock association in installments over the 10-year life of the tax. A $98,000 installment late last year helped pay for renovations at Barton Coliseum.
The master plan for the fairgrounds will decide how best to use the rest of that promised funding, including redrawing the layout of the fair. Moving attractions and facilities on the fairgrounds property is difficult because of the expense of redirecting underground utilities.
One thing is certain: The front gate will have to move, said Ralph Shoptaw, president and general manager of the fair.
The Highway Department is going to take between 75 and 100 feet of property when it builds the new Roosevelt Road overpass south of its current location, he said.
“We had thought about putting it on the east side, and we may build a temporary solution for 2014, and then choose a permanent solution for the next year,” Shoptaw said. “There’s a lot we have to look at in the plan in terms of what could be moved, or how we want to update and change the layout, and even what makes sense for our future plans.”
Along with the sales-tax funding, city officials pitched four possible ideas for expanding the fairgrounds or making it more accessible to the public. The state owns the fairgrounds property - about 140 acres - a little less than half of which is usable because of topographical issues.
The expansion options include connecting the fairgrounds with about 34 acres of land to the west, which would require moving railroad tracks. Another option would involve building an entrance ramp from Interstate 30 to the back gate of the property on the southeast corner.
The Roosevelt Road overpass replacement and lighting could help with one of the expansion options, which would connect the fairgrounds to about 47 acres of land to the northwest of the facility and use a pedestrian promenade along the new bridge to get people to those new attractions once they’re planned.
A fourth option would require buying residential properties on the east side of the fairgrounds in the South End Community as they become available - including about10 acres of low-income housing run by the Metropolitan Housing Alliance. Some people in that neighborhood have said they do not want their homes to be sold or to be taken through eminent domain.
Livestock association members said the fairgrounds would use a combination of options to expand, but the association has not decided if all of the expansion proposals will be used or if some will be eliminated from consideration. The master plan will likely address how and when the fairgrounds will expand, Shoptaw said, adding that the neighboring communities will get a chance to see it before the association approves the final version.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 13 on 07/21/2013