Dear Knower of All Things: I'm thinking of a central Arkansas project that seems to be taking way too long to complete. It's the railroad overpass on the east end of McCain Boulevard in North Little Rock. Every time I go to the general mail facility it seems that no progress is being made. -- Tired of the Detour
Dear Tired: We feel your pain, as that famous political guy used to say. A while back we took the Fabulous Babe's car to a transmission shop on East Broadway via this route because rush-hour traffic everywhere else was horrible. We wound up taking a scenic tour of north Pulaski County.
Your question was tossed at Nathan Hamilton, knower of all in North Little Rock government. It then reverberated though the echo chamber of the city engineer's office and the Arkansas Department of Transportation. You will be glad to know that even though this project appears to be a wholly owned operation of the city, it has a Transportation Department number. What this means in the grand scheme of highway construction, we can only imagine.
The street was closed to traffic on July 11, 2016. At the time, Hamilton said, the closure was expected to be for 16 months. Why so long? It's a complicated matter to build a big bridge over an operational railroad.
Chris Wilbourn, the city's chief engineer and traffic director, said the contractor is striving to have the bridge open just before Thanksgiving. But in his view, the first week in December seems more likely. The original completion date, he added, was January 1, 2018.
Dear Mahatma: I long to sit in the stands at Talladega to watch the time trials. I have found an alternative. Go early, 8:30 a.m., and squeeze into one of the parking slots alongside the branch bank in the curve on Kavanaugh Boulevard just across from Heights Corner Market. Watch as they speed around the curve from Cantrell Road heading west, and as they speed from the west on Kavanaugh heading toward Cantrell. You will see turns, slides, stop-sign running, brake slamming, tire squealing, road-rage gestures and hell-bent fury. What to do? -- Observant
Dear Observant: You have now put into our head the Eric Church song, "Talladega," a tune almost as good as Church's ode to Bruce Springsteen.
Call the Little Rock Police Department and ask for enforcement. Good numbers are 371-4829 and 371-4830.
Be careful. Because one of the tickets issued may be your own, since you obviously pass that way.
Dear Mahatma: Would it be possible for you to assist in spreading the word regarding the correct pronunciation of the Little Rock Street spelled "Shall?" The correct pronunciation is "Shawl," after a prominent citizen named David Fulton Shall who was killed by a stray bullet during the Brooks-Baxter War in April 1874. -- Historian
Dear Historian: We live to serve. Oh, the things we have learned while writing this column.
Metro on 11/04/2017