BENTONVILLE -- Benton County officials have changed the time of a meeting about the War Eagle Bridge.

The informational session will be held from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday at the visitor's center at Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area.

The meeting originally was scheduled to start at 10 a.m.

County Judge Bob Clinard recently met with Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department officials, engineers and contractors familiar with the bridge and other county officials to discuss structural deficiencies in the 108-year-old structure.

The Highway Department has listed several serious deficiencies in inspection reports since 2013. Mitchell Archer, district construction engineer for the department, said the bridge is "functionally obsolete."

Clinard decided after the meeting the county will look at replacing the bridge while preserving the old one, if possible, for pedestrians and bicycles. Clinard wants people living in the area or who are interested in the bridge to hear the county's aims directly and have a chance to offer input.

Clinard has said the county hopes to find a suitable site for a bridge near the old one to minimize costs of a longer span and added road work.

The priority is to bypass the bridge for vehicles, Clinard said. The project likely will take three years or more if the county is able to secure state money for the work, Clinard has said.

Hobbs State Park is 10 miles east of Rogers on Arkansas 12.

NW News on 02/04/2015