Dear Drivetime: I live in Clarendon, where the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department completed a new bridge over the White River. I can't help but think the agency feels rural folk lack the ability to appreciate aesthetics. The Big Rock bridges have pine trees imprinted. Overpasses in Conway, Lonoke and Fayetteville have an impression of the state. We have -- gray concrete. Another issue is that the bridge has been finished for months but hasn't been opened. What gives? Can you get the Highway Department to show us some love? -- Unappreciated
Dear Un: A mournful cry for help. Here comes the love.
We routed your email to Scott Bennett, the big dog of the Highway Department. (For some reason, this reminds us of the late Henry Gray, a longtime director of the Highway Department who was said to be the most powerful man in Arkansas. We hope that if anyone said that about Bennett, he'd have the good sense to hide under his desk.)
Bennett responded with an email of his own, parts of which we now convey. Given that the editorial writers here recently accused Bennett of being a technocrat, we took out all the humor.
"This project was first conceived in the 1990s, well before we started considering aesthetic enhancements to our bridges.
"In general aesthetic enhancements to bridges started in the early 2000s at the [U.S.] 70 interchange in Hot Springs. During coordination meetings with the city, they asked if we could incorporate the city colors into the structure. That is how we came up with the blue beams and turquoise stripe in the wall."
About those bridge inserts that outline the state, the first was incorporated in 2005 in Texarkana.
"Aesthetic enhancements have grown from here, and are becoming more prevalent on many of our bridges."
About your bridge, Mr. Unappreciated, "there were elastomeric bearing pads installed incorrectly on the bridge pier caps of the new bridge. These pads rest between the bridge beams and the cap on the support columns and allow the bridge beams to expand and contract."
We looked this up. Elastomeric bearing pads give flexibility to bridges, which are subjected to external forces such as wind, changes in temperature and heavy loads. So, yes, to our pea-sized brain, incorrectly installed elastomeric bearing pads sounds like something that must be fixed.
The contractor is required to correct the problem at no cost to the Highway Department. Specifications for the corrective work have been given to the contractor, which is preparing a plan for submission.
"Unfortunately, this corrective work will require the bridge beams to be lifted off the pads, which makes it necessary to keep the bridge closed to traffic until the work is accomplished. Just an extra tidbit -- the total cost of the White River Bridge and the approaches is nearly $100 million."
Mahatma@arkansasonline.com
Metro on 12/19/2015