Benton County has five-year bridge plan

BENTONVILLE -- Meeting the increasing traffic loads in the state's second-most populous county will require Benton County to replace or repair a number of highly traveled bridges.

The county has a five-year plan for major bridge projects. County Judge Barry Moehring said the work is scheduled to try and meet the growing traffic needs and keep bridges safe for public use.

The Arkansas Department of Transportation inspects bridges in all 75 counties and issues a report listing any deficiencies. Bridges are inspected annually or every other year. The reports help the county evaluate which bridges to put at the top of the priority list, but aren't the only factor.

"Just because a bridge has deficiencies in the state inspection report doesn't mean they're unsafe," Moehring said. "The bridges listed are still safe, they just have different classifications on inspections. In each situation we make sure we jump in there so the bridges stay safe."

Moehring said some of the deficiencies may not be structural. Deficiencies are classified as a matter of seriousness and can range from graffiti on the bridge or brush underneath it to a loose bolt on a handrail or structural problems.

He said if a load rating sign has been knocked down, the state inspectors will flag that in their report and the county will replace the sign.

"That's a high-priority item, but it doesn't mean the bridge is unsafe," Moehring said. No bridges are currently deemed unsafe or closed because of unsafe conditions.

Benton County has 94 bridges, according to a report by the Road Department. The bridges range in age from the War Eagle Bridge, built in 1907, to the Fisher Ford Bridge across the Illinois River that opened in 2015. The old Fisher Ford Bridge was closed for several years after the state declared it unsafe.

The county finished a $1.4 million renovation of the War Eagle Bridge last year. State inspectors found critical deficiencies during an inspection in 2013. The county received a $500,000 federal grant to offset some of the cost.

Spanker Creek

The county is working on plans to replace the Spanker Creek Bridge between Bella Vista and Bentonville. It has become a heavily-traveled "bypass" for traffic avoiding U.S. 71. A traffic count showed 7,000 vehicles a day were crossing the bridge.

The bridge was built in 2005 using a series of box culverts. Jay Frasier, head of the Road Department, said debris clogged the culverts during flooding and water flowed over the top. In the April 2017 flooding, the water washed away all the asphalt on the bridge. It was repaired and reopened, but the county decided to replace it.

Josh Beam, county engineer, said the county has obtained all the rights of way needed for the project and expects to advertise for bids soon. If construction begins in June, as scheduled, the bridge will be closed for the remainder of the year.

Bella Vista Mayor Peter Christie said his city and the Bentonville School District have been meeting with the county to coordinate plans for detours while the bridge is closed.

"There are lots of people who drive that route every day and the School District has buses that use the road," Christie said. "For the nine or 10 months the bridge will be closed that will put a lot of pressure on other avenues."

Christie said the bridge's location, crossing a creek in a low-lying area of a flood plain, made its replacement almost inevitable.

"Barry and I met out there last April during that storm and we could see the water washing the asphalt off the bridge," he said.

Wagon Wheel

The county's third large-scale bridge project is replacing the Wagon Wheel Road bridge, just west of Interstate 49 near Springdale. The one-lane bridge crossing Spring Creek was built in 1975 and population growth has increased traffic to the point the bridge is now a bottleneck. A traffic count showed more than 1,000 vehicles cross the bridge daily.

Springdale Mayor Doug Sprouse said the city and county discussed the project and he supports the decision to replace the bridge. Sprouse said that while the boundary between the city and the county crossed Wagon Wheel Road in several places, the bridge is a county responsibility.

Pat Adams, justice of the peace for District 6 and chairman of Benton County's transportation committee, said the county has to balance working on the most heavily traveled roads and maintaining the rural roads county residents rely on.

"They're all citizens of Benton County," Adams said. "I want us to work with the municipalities where we can but we've got to take care of the folks in the rural areas. That's what the county government is there for."

The Wildcat Creek Bridge on Old Highway 68 in southwestern Benton County is being replaced in a $1.4 million project. The county is having that done as a "state-aid project" under a program where the state does the bulk of the work and pays 98 percent of the cost. The county can only have one state-aid project under construction at a time and one more in design, according to Beam. Osage Creek, in the design state, is the next state aid project.

NW News on 03/11/2018