Benton County plans to replace War Eagle Bridge

NWA Media/ J.T. Wampler - Devon, left, and Ed Leone of Edmond OK, visit the War Eagle bridge and mill Thursday Sept. 14, 2014. The couple was in Northwest Arkansas for a long weekend of sightseeing.
NWA Media/ J.T. Wampler - Devon, left, and Ed Leone of Edmond OK, visit the War Eagle bridge and mill Thursday Sept. 14, 2014. The couple was in Northwest Arkansas for a long weekend of sightseeing.

BENTONVILLE — Benton County Judge Bob Clinard said Wednesday he will begin the process of replacing the historic War Eagle Bridge with an eye toward preserving the existing structure for pedestrian traffic.

Clinard met with representatives of the state Highway and Transportation Department, the county Road Department and engineers and contractors who worked on the bridge rehabilitation project done in 2010. The county spent $642,058 in state funds and federal grant money in 2010, according to Mike Crandall, accounting manager.

The bridge was closed during the summer of 2010 while the wood decking was replaced and some work was done on the steel supports of the bridge. In talks about the project at the time it was said the bridge could be kept in use for another 50 years.

At Wednesday's meeting, Clinard discussed a Highway Department bridge inspection report from October, 2013, that listed three deficiencies listed as category B, which should have been addressed within six months. The report listed another 1o deficiencies in category C, which are considered important, and five in category D, which are considered routine.

The War Eagle Bridge was built in 1907 and the officials at Wednesday's meeting indicated that while it could be rebuilt, the cost would be greater than building a new bridge. An estimate prepared for the county before the 2010 work put the cost of totally rehabilitating the bridge at about $1.8 million

"I don't see that it makes any sense spending that much money to re-hab it," Clinard said. "So we're looking at either replacing it or bypassing it and I'm going to initiate the study to do that."

Mitchell Archer, district construction engineer for the Highway Department, said he understands the emotional and political considerations that are involved with historic bridges but those are not issues the state considers in evaluating bridges.

"Yes you can re-hab it," Archer said. "Is it worth it? No. It's functionally obsolete."

Archer indicated the bridge is still safe with the weight limits now in place but said the problems will only worsen.

"Those deficiencies are there," he said. "They're not going to get any better and they're not going to go away."

Glenn Jones, with the Benton County Historical Preservation Commission, reacted strongly to the news.

"Oh no, not War Eagle, here we go again," Jones said. "That's too historic to destroy. I'll do anything that's needed. I will round up the troops."

Jones said he's aware of the structural problems with the bridge, which make it impossible to move the existing structure to another location. He said he hopes the county can give the historic bridge to the commission or some other entity that can maintain it and preserve it as a footbridge.

"If we can get the judge to give it to us, we can get the work done," he said.

Clinard said he will try to do the War Eagle project with state and federal aid money. Since the county is already using state aid money on the Wildcat Bridge project, he said, the War Eagle project will probably be on a three-year time line. He said the county can't put a cost estimate on a new bridge until a location is found and the necessary elevation is determined.

Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4 and chairman of the county's Finance Committee, said a major bridge project will most likely have to be funded from the county's reserves. He said the Quorum Court has been setting aside money in the capital projects fund for possible use on a new courts building but the justices of the peace will need to look at using some of that on the bridge if needed, or increasing the amount in the fund. Allen said he favors preserving the historic bridge if possible.

"There are a lot of people who do value it highly," he said. "If you can partner with the Historic Commission or some other agency to help us preserve it that would be good."

Tom Sissom can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWATom.

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