DECATUR -- The Decatur Branch footbridge, which was slated for destruction one year ago, made a short 15-minute journey recently to a new home in northwest Decatur.
The footbridge, which was the 31st bridge built by Continental Bridges of Alexandra, Minn., in 2001, made the three-mile trip from its old location just off of Spring Avenue to its new home on the north end of Veterans Park. Within an hour after it was removed from Decatur Branch Creek, it was set up and already receiving visitors to the walking trail.
Three years ago, Mayor Bob Tharp and the Decatur City Council wrote a letter to the Arkansas Department of Transportation expressing the group's concerns over the condition of both the Wolf Creek Bridge near Crystal Lake and the Decatur Branch Arkansas 59 bridge in southern Decatur.
After ArDOT completed a study on both locations, the transportation department decided that both bridges were in dire need of replacement. After all public works lines (electrical, cable, water and sewer) were located and moved, the highway department informed the city that the Decatur Branch footbridge would need to be taken out in order to make way for a temporary structure to move traffic around the new bridge construction site. That prompted the question of just what to do with the 20-year-old structure.
The council mulled the idea of simply selling it for scrap. But this idea was quickly rejected because the bridge was in near perfect condition.
Finally, a plan to incorporate the footbridge as part of the Veterans Park Walking trail was drawn up by Tharp and the City Council. After gaining permission to build the bridge into the system by ArDOT, work began on building the sidewalk on either end of the bridge, and in April the footings and landscaping were finished and ready to receive the footbridge.
Around 2 p.m. July 29, a Crossland Heavy Construction flatbed trailer truck carrying a Skytrak forklift pulled into the Ramirez Bus and Auto Sales parking lot ready to move the bridge.
About 15 minutes before the crew arrived at the Decatur Branch site, Yeferson Cordona, a junior at Decatur High School, walked across the Decatur Branch footbridge on his way into town. Little did Cordona realize at the time, but he would be the last person to cross the old span, ending the little bridge's 20-year mission to convey pedestrians across the small creek.
It only took 15 minutes to lift the bridge from its foundation, load and strap it down to the trailer. The little bridge bid its old home goodbye and was soon on the road to Veterans Park via Main Street. It passed by the Decatur Depot, log cabin and the four-way stoplight where the old city well still sits under the highway. On passed the police station and Grand Saving Bank before the convoy turned onto North Main Street.
As the truck climbed the steep road, a somewhat rare sight occurred. It is not often that people get to see a fully constructed bridge cross another bridge as the truck crossed over the Kansas City Southern railroad overpass.
Five minutes later, the Decatur Branch footbridge arrived at its new home at Veterans Park. A quick offload and soon the bridge was laid on its new foundation and ready for its new mission.
No longer the Decatur Branch footbridge, the 20-year-old structure will become the Veterans Park footbridge and will afford visitors a spectacular view of the park below.
