Rolling right along: Broadway Bridge reconstruction hasn’t caused the traffic headache that was feared

Lovely traffic is lined up to cross the Arkansas River during rush hour in Little Rock.
Lovely traffic is lined up to cross the Arkansas River during rush hour in Little Rock.

It's 5:11 p.m. on a weekday in January and the downtown Little Rock streets are playing the commuter's blues, a cacophony of blaring horns, tightening brakes creating squealing rimshots and curses as heavy as power chords.

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JOHN SYKES JR.

Downtown Little Rock Traffic

Scott Street, headed north onto the Main Street Bridge, over the Arkansas River to North Little Rock, the suburbs and freedom, is a stream of brake lights, with vehicles backed up, creating havoc.

Nothing moves, the streets are clogged and life is miserable.

With apologies to Bruce Springsteen, this is traffic born to stand still. Traffic such as this rips the bones from backs, becoming a death trap. There's no getting out while people are young. The road is jammed with broken heroes.

Everybody's out on the run but there's no place left to go.

Car-mageddon this is not, though. It's just the slow crawl of commuters heading home in the afternoon since the demolition for replacement of the Broadway Bridge between Little Rock and North Little Rock. Give the traffic a little time (generally after 8:30 a.m. for the morning commute and after 5:45 p.m. for the afternoon commute), and the tension slackens. Things go back to normal ... or near normal for Arkansas traffic.

Sure, it's not perfect. In fact, it's downright tedious for drivers in the congestion, but traffic moves during these rush hours -- slowly, surely -- unless there's a wreck, then things grind to a halt before the wreckage is cleared and cars lurch back into a sluggish march onward.

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"On our side it's been slow but semi-smooth," Little Rock police spokesman Richard Hilgeman says. "Obviously, it is what it is: It's traffic ... and it's always going to slow down in certain spots."

Even with traffic jams morning and afternoon, neither Little Rock nor North Little Rock police report any serious road-rage-related events through Feb. 2 due to the replacement of the bridge.

This is not exactly what was expected. As Sept. 28 approached, the day the 93-year-old Broadway Bridge closed for replacement, there was an almost visible apprehension in the air. Even this newspaper's editorial pages referred to it as "Our asphalt Armageddon."

Closing the Broadway Bridge for 180 days, the length of time from Oct. 1 that Massman Construction Co. of Kansas City, Mo., has been given to remove the old span and complete the installation of the new one, meant some 25,000 motorists who used the bridge daily were forced to find alternate routes across the river. Either the Main Street Bridge or Interstate 30 bridge, although some might detour as far out from downtown as the Interstates 430 and 440 bridges.

With the $98.4 million construction project more than halfway over and on schedule -- the 180-day countdown strikes zero at 11:59:59 p.m. March 29 -- what many thought might be the end of civilized traffic in central Arkansas during the morning and afternoon commutes has actually not come to pass.

Yet. It could, but let's remain cautiously optimistic.

"The only problem we've seen is when there's an accident maybe on the Little Rock side of the [Main Street] bridge that backs up on our side," says Sgt. Brian Dedrick, spokesman for the North Little Rock Police Department, about the morning commute in downtown. "If there's an accident, it tends to slow everything down. Ultimately, if traffic is running good, we've been in good shape.

"I know I don't have to drive it every day ... but I've been very surprised that in my office I've gotten ... almost no complaints about traffic. The only thing is, if something gets backed up on [Interstate 30], then that causes issues. But if traffic goes and we don't have any accidents, it's really been kind of nice and pretty easy so far."

GOOD PLANNING BEATS GOOD LUCK

Why things have gone relatively smoothly by this point --128 days and counting -- is attributable to several factors, starting with planning.

Local and state governments planned as well as they could for the closure of the Broadway Bridge. And local traffic engineers have monitored the situation.

"It's basically been a non-event," says Bill Henry, Little Rock's traffic engineering manager. "We re-timed the downtown system, tied North Little Rock into us, put them on the same cycle length, and we've been able to push more traffic, and most people are a whole lot happier than they would have been."

Henry's office began studying the traffic patterns affected by the bridge's closure "a year beforehand," he says. The office still tinkers, making changes to keep traffic flowing.

Right now, lights on Scott Street are green for the maximum amount of time allowed -- 90 seconds green light to green light -- under the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.

"We can look at it all day long, but we can't really do anything about it," Henry says.

North of the river, North Little Rock uploaded to its website the "Broadway Bridge Survival Guide," with suggested alternate routes, real-time streaming from selected traffic cameras, construction updates and more.

Commuters heeded the warnings and planned well -- choosing new routes and leaving earlier for their destinations.

"Most of the people already coming into Little Rock already had a plan," Hilgeman says. "The daily commuters -- they've been well aware of what was going to happen and how it was going to affect their commute.

"Hopefully, once they get it all done, it'll be great."

Winter weather has been pretty decent, too -- so far (weather always comes with a caveat). There was one snowy Friday in January, but schools and government offices were mostly shut down, which meant downtown streets were deserted.

Ultimately, though, drivers stuck in the traffic have been reasonably calm. Sure, there are horns -- or, the notorious driver who parks in the middle of an intersection during a green light -- but most drivers have been patient.

Traffic has been thick but has moved, maybe in a trickle, but still moving.

"Patience has been a key while this new bridge has been built," Dedrick says. "We really appreciate -- so far -- everybody's patience and understanding of how it has affected traffic and their commute. Everybody's been super, and we appreciate that."

AVOIDING THE RAGE

That's not to say aggressive driving or road rage hasn't occurred because of the Broadway Bridge construction. There just haven't been any high-profile cases related to the construction.

Still, aggressive driving and road rage are a problem, not just in central Arkansas or statewide, but across the country. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reported in a July study that "78 percent of U.S. drivers reported having engaged in at least one aggressive driving behavior at least once in the past year."

The study, "Prevalence of Self-Reported Aggressive Driving Behavior: United States, 2014" and based on 2,705 U.S. licensed drivers age 16 and older, said the most common aggressive behaviors included purposefully tailgating another vehicle (50.8 percent of drivers), yelling at another driver (46.6 percent) or honking the horn "to show annoyance or anger" (44.5 percent).

About "one-third of all respondents indicated that they had made an angry gesture at another driver," the study said, and approximately 25 percent of drivers reported that they had purposely tried to block another driver from changing lanes. Almost 12 percent said they had cut off another vehicle on purpose.

Moving beyond aggressive driving and into road rage territory, the study found that "3.7 percent of drivers reported that they had exited their vehicle to confront another driver, and 2.8 percent reported that they had bumped or rammed another vehicle on purpose."

The study reported that "male and younger drivers ages 19-39 were significantly more likely to engage in aggressive behaviors."

"It's completely normal for drivers to experience anger behind the wheel, but we must not let our emotions lead to destructive choices," Jake Nelson, AAA's director of Traffic Safety Advocacy and Research, said in the study. "Don't risk escalating a frustrating situation because you never know what the other driver might do. Maintain a cool head, and focus on reaching your destination safely."

Avoiding these confrontations is good advice as the completion of the Broadway Bridge appears on the horizon, but sometimes it is not possible.

If you are a victim of aggressive driving or road rage, the best response is no response.

"No. 1: Don't get yourself involved in that situation," Dedrick says. "If somebody is hollering at you, and flipping you off and driving erratically, don't get involved in it.

"Just ... let them go on about their business. It's not going to solve anything to get involved. Flipping them off back or yelling or anything like that. Just ignore them."

If that fails, Dedrick and Hilgeman say, the next option is calling 911, especially if the aggressive or erratic driver is a hazard.

"If you feel that you are in danger, definitely call 911," Hilgeman says. "You can drive to one of our police stations. If you're worried about your safety, drive to a police station, call 911 while on the way. Give us a description of the vehicle and driver, if you can. But definitely don't try to confront them."

ActiveStyle on 02/06/2017

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