DRIVETIME MAHATMA

Script for A Bridge Too Few

Dear Mahatma: What’s this about blowing up the Broadway Bridge? When did that happen? My little sports car can’t take the bumpy trolley tracks at the foot of the Main Street Bridge. Will the trolley routes change during rush hour while the new bridge is built? - Really Concerned

Dear Really: Breathe slowly and deeply. Let’s review. A blowed-up bridge may happen, but it’s part of a much longer story. The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department revealed about three years ago that the bridge was old, plumb worn out and would be replaced. No exact date of closure yet, but we likely will have the bridge for the rest of this year.

What you read in the newspaper recently was informed speculation that maybe the best and fastest way to take down the old bridge would be by implosion. The pieces would be taken out of the river, and the bridge building would commence.

The Broadway Bridge carries about 24,000 vehicles a day. That traffic will go to the Interstate 30 and Main Street bridges.

More informed speculation is that the loss of one of three bridges would make rush hour a booger, especially in the inevitable event of an accident on the two remaining bridges.

What to do?

We talked to Bill Henry, Little Rock’s manager of traffic engineering. He said about 100 signals in the downtown area will have their cycles changed.

For instance, 70-second cycles on signals that move traffic on Scott Street, off and onto the Main Street Bridge, would go to 90 seconds, the better to move rush-hour traffic. There will be a higher percentage of time for north-south traffic than east-west, with enough of the latter to accommodate pedestrians.

The p.m. plan, he said, “is the one that tells the story,” but the a.m. plan is important, too. To that end, Scott Street will be two-way to Sixth Street, rather than to Capitol (Fifth), as is the case now.

The object is to accommodate all those folks who work at the state Capitol complex by funneling them west on one-way Sixth.

In North Little Rock, Chris Wilbourn is planning and traffic engineer.

He’s studying the problem and will coordinate with Little Rock. Surely, he said, there will be a change in the timing of the lights in downtown North Little Rock.

Jarod Varner runs Central Arkansas Transit Authority, the mainstay of which is the bus system.

On the trolley, he said via email: “We have not been involved in traffic management planning and therefore have not considered the modifications you mentioned.”

Varner said CATA is “very interested in playing an important role in traffic mitigation associated with the Broadway Bridge project. We have struggled to reach decision makers that will consider the possible expansion of CATA services as a viable traffic mitigation strategy … We feel that additional transit services could play a vital role in reducing congestion.” Mahatma@arkansasonline.com

Arkansas, Pages 9 on 03/01/2014

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