Bicyclists, joggers and walkers regained access to the north side of the Big Dam Bridge and a portion of the Arkansas River Trail in North Little Rock's Burns Park on Thursday afternoon.
Arkansas River flooding had forced closure of the trail since late December.
The trail inside Burns Park reopened midday Thursday, and gates to the Big Dam Bridge were unlocked by Pulaski County workers in the afternoon, North Little Rock Parks and Recreation Director Terry Hartwick said.
The River Trail includes a 16-mile loop between the Big Dam Bridge at Cooks Landing in North Little Rock and the Clinton Presidential Park Bridge in downtown Little Rock. The trail also extends from North Little Rock through Maumelle to Conway.
A portion of the trail inside Burns Park, including access to the Big Dam Bridge from the North Little Rock side of the Arkansas River, was closed after the waterway crested at 24.9 feet at Little Rock in late December. Flood stage there is 23 feet.
In the flooding's immediate aftermath, North Little Rock officials also had to close the Burns Park soccer complex, archery range, boat launch, skate park, dog park and the road leading into Cooks Landing near the intersection of Interstate 430 and Crystal Hill Road.
"Everything's open," Hartwick said Thursday. "The park is completely open and ready for business."
Nearly 500 dump-truck loads of sand, mud and debris had to be cleaned from the trail, with the city, county and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers coordinating the cleanup process, a city spokesman said.
The park's portion of the trail remained closed longer than other areas because of heavy machinery being used, Hartwick said.
"With the big tractors we had out there, we couldn't see anything behind us, so [the trail] remained closed for safety reasons," said Hartwick, who became parks director on Jan. 1. He is a former president of the North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce and a former mayor of the city.
"It's unbelievable how much stuff was out there," Hartwick said, referring to debris cleaned up from the previously flooded area. "We found freezers. We found a rabbit that was dead that was 10 feet up a tree that must have been swimming in the high water. That's how deep the water was.
"It's been a very interesting process for my first month," he said.
Metro on 02/05/2016