HOT SPRINGS -- A bridge that has spanned a south Garland County creek for nearly a century has landed on a state list for demolition.
The 32-foot-long Sorrel Creek Bridge north of the Hot Spring County line on Arkansas 7 south is scheduled for demolition, said Robert Scoggin, historic resources coordinator of the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department's Environmental Division.
A marketing letter dated March 20 is soliciting new owners as part of a federal law requiring historic bridges scheduled for demolition to be made available for donation to a "state, locality or private entity." The highway department sent the letter to the Garland County Historical Society, Arkansas State Parks, Garland County, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Scoggin said.
If a letter of interest isn't submitted within 45 days of the marketing letter's receipt, Scoggin said the bridge is scheduled for demolition.
The department determined the masonry-arch bridge built in the early 1920s was eligible for the National Register of Historic Places in 2006, but its proximity to a sharp curve north of Kentucky Derby Drive and its narrow width put it on the department's replacement list.
"A lot of it has to do with the geometry of the approaches," Scoggin said. "There's a sharp curve coming into it, and it narrows as you go across the bridge. People end up wrecking into the end of the bridge."
Scoggin said highway department regulations prevent it from keeping bridges no longer in vehicular use. If an interest is expressed to assume responsibility for its historic preservation, the highway department will consider the feasibility of leaving it in place and building the new bridge adjacent to it.
"If someone else wants to take it over, we're more than willing to make that happen," he said. "Nine times out of 10 it's something we can do."
Scoggin said it could be converted into a pedestrian rest area with park benches and a plaque explaining its historical significance. Expenses associated with its preservation would be reimbursed up to 100 percent of the demolition costs as determined by the Federal Highway Administration.
Scoggin said the analysis committee determined the cost of relocating it was prohibitive, explaining that it's an option generally limited to metal-truss bridges.
"Being a concrete arch, it would be hard to move," Scoggin said.
County Judge Rick Davis said the road department received the letter Friday. He planned to look into it today.
Sorrel Creek Bridge is one of 32 of the concrete Deck Arch, Closed Spandrel variety remaining in Arkansas, according to the highway department. It was widened in 1930 to its current width of 25 feet by the West Arkansas Construction Company, of McAlister, Okla.
Scoggin said state law prevents the transfer of ownership to an individual. The highway department is working to write rules that would allow a nonprofit organization to accept historic bridges scheduled for replacement.
NW News on 03/31/2015