LITTLE ROCK — Efforts to close the gap in the Arkansas River Trail suffered a setback Thursday when Little Rock lost out to other cities in a national bid for a share of $511 million in federal transportation grants.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who got a firsthand look at the trail when he visited Little Rock in July, announced 46 projects that will be funded in 33 states and Puerto Rico. La-Hood’s department received 848 applications, requesting a total of $14.29 billion.
The capital city submitted an $11.9 million Department of Transportation grant application last month to help acquire land and build an elevated trailway behind the Dillard’s headquarters off Cantrell Road, where bicyclists don’t feel safe sharing the road and detour around traffic.
“Obviously I’m disappointed. There was a lot of hard work that went into it,” Mayor Mark Stodola said Thursday.
The federal dollars were commonly referred to as the TIGER III grant, or the third round of the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant program.
“I have been told that we might anticipate a TIGER IV process,” Stodola said. “That information came down a couple of weeks ago and of course if there is one, we will be back in the mix, working very hard to be considered in that round.”
Many of the successful projects involve repairing or upgrading bridges and railroad lines, although a portion of Chicago’s $20 million grant will help pay for expanding the Windy City’s bike share program. Chicago’s program gives public transit riders a way to make it to their final destinations after stepping off a train or bus.
Little Rock’s 14-mile Arkansas River Trail stretches from the Clinton Presidential Park Bridge in downtown Little Rock west to the Big Dam Bridge, where it crosses into North Little Rock and loops back toward downtown. But the missing link of the trail near Cantrell Road forces bicyclists and pedestrians to navigate a narrow sidewalk on the Cantrell Road bridge or the road itself. Some cyclists also use several city streets, going the wrong way at some points, to detour around the busy roadway.
“I’m sure there’s a lot of good causes. I just think with the infrastructure we have in place here, I thought we had a good chance of getting it,” said Stephen Bentley, a member of Bicycle Advocacy of Central Arkansas, a group that has been supporting the city’s efforts to close the gap.
The city’s application was made the same week the Arkansas River Trail was listed as one of two Arkansas projects worthy of funding in America’s Great Outdoors Report, a national publication put out by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
“It’s a setback but I don’t think it’s going to stop us from finishing the trail,” Bentley said of LaHood’s announcement.
Along with hoping the federal government will do another round of grants, Stodola said he will continue to look for other state or federal funding.
The city set aside $500,000 in next year’s budget as a match for any possible grant for the River Trail. Little Rock also received $1.03 million from the state’s General Improvement Fund in 2005.
If no other grants come through, Stodola said he thinks the city should use the 2005 state funds to at least bypass the railroad tracks where the Medical Mile portion of the River Trail stops in a dead end in downtown. The Medical Mile starts in Riverfront Park and ends at the Baring Cross railroad bridge.
A full list of federal grant recipients is available online at dot.gov.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 12/16/2011