BENTONVILLE -- Repair work on the historic War Eagle Bridge could finish ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline, Benton County officials said.
County Judge Barry Moehring hopes to finalize plans next week for a ribbon-cutting for the restored bridge.
Historic bridge
The War Eagle Bridge, built by the Illinois Steel Bridge Co. in 1907, is significant as one of six Parker through trusses in Arkansas. The bridge sits next to a reconstructed grist mill, which is the fourth in a series of mills on the same site dating to 1832.
Source: Library of Congress
"It's coming in on time and under budget," Moehring said. "Those are some of our favorite words around here."
Johnice Cross, general manager of War Eagle Mill, is glad to hear the bridge will open soon. The closed bridge has hurt business and made life a bit more difficult for those who live or work in the area, she said.
The bridge separates the mill from offices in the granary, which requires people to travel an extended circuit from one side to the other, Cross said. Deliveries have to be arranged according to which side of the bridge they're needed on, and customers have to be handled when they arrive at the mill and discover the bridge is closed.
"It's about 30 minutes to drive around, unless you go through Gar Hollow. That takes about 10 minutes off, but it tends to flood down there, too. We're looking forward to it opening," Cross said.
The mill has advertised about the bridge being closed and even created a $5 coupon for customers who were unaware of the closing to encourage them to take the drive around and shop, Cross said.
Cross hopes the bridge will be open in advance of the annual Bikes, Blues & BBQ festival, which is set for Sept. 20-23, because it typically generates a lot of business.
"They love to come to the mill, and we love to have them," she said. "I know they're doing everything they can to accommodate that. We're just keeping our fingers crossed. We're off some for the year. We just miss that traffic. Some people just won't drive all that way around."
The county has restricted traffic on the bridge since 2013 by lowering the weight limit to 3 tons. The county spent about $640,000 on repairs to the bridge in 2010, but state inspectors found critical deficiencies during an inspection in 2013.
The county hired Great River Engineering of Springfield, Mo., to inspect the bridge and identify problems, then do design work to restore the bridge. The firm developed a three-tiered approach with each step including more repair to extend the life of the bridge.
The bridge was closed the week of May 8. The county awarded the contract to repair the 109-year-old bridge to Crossland Heavy Construction. The contract included a final completion date of Sept. 30. Moehring said the county will take any money saved on the project and use it for signs, traffic control measures and other safety-related needs.
The county has $1.4 million in the budget for the work, according to Brenda Guenther, comptroller.
It has been awarded a $500,000 federal grant to reimburse some of the cost once the work is done. The grant comes from the Transportation Alternatives Program, a federal-aid program to construct sidewalks and trails for pedestrians, bicyclists and other nonmotorized forms of transportation. The program also creates systems that provide safe routes for nonmotorists, including children, older adults and individuals with disabilities.
Pat Adams, justice of the peace and chairman of the Quorum Court's Transportation Committee, said the county needs to learn some lessons from the War Eagle project and develop a system to evaluate county bridges and schedule regular maintenance, major repairs and eventual replacement.
The three to five years needed for major bridge projects, as replacing the War Eagle Bridge would be, means the county should begin looking at doing work years before it will begin, he said.
"The way the county is booming and traffic is increasing, you don't know what the load will be," Adams said. "Then the state is always changing the way it evaluates bridges. They may change something and come back in three years and tell us it doesn't meet standards any more. I hope we get 15 to 20 years, but, in about five years' time, they really need to start looking at it hard."
NW News on 09/05/2017