Under I-30 plan, parking cut

For LR, project means more lanes, fewer free spaces

Map showing the parking spaces that will be lost during The 30 Crossing improvement project.
Map showing the parking spaces that will be lost during The 30 Crossing improvement project.

While the planned renovation of the Interstate 30 corridor through Little Rock will make it easier to drive through the area, highway officials say, it will also make it tougher to find a downtown parking spot.

All four of the alternatives the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department has under consideration for the 6.7-mile corridor through downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock are expected to cost downtown Little Rock parking spaces.

Under those plans, changes to the entrances and exits to the highway just south of the Arkansas River bridge, as well as planned green space, will eliminate as many as 335 parking spaces, nearly all of which are free spaces.

The department has said it could spend as much as $631.7 million on the I-30 project, which stretches from Interstate 530 in Little Rock to Interstate 40 in North Little Rock. The project, which the department calls 30 Crossing, also includes a section of I-40 between John F. Kennedy Boulevard and U.S. 67/167 in North Little Rock.

Two alternatives the department has developed include widening the corridor to include six through lanes, as it does now, plus what the department describes as four distributor-collector lanes, two in each direction. The distributor-collector lanes would be limited to local traffic to move back and forth across the bridge at slower speeds without having to use the through lanes.

The other two alternatives anticipate widening the corridor to eight through lanes.

The alternatives also include two options to get into and out of downtown Little Rock for each lane configuration. One would replace the I-30/Cantrell Road interchange with a more modern design, and the other would do away with the Cantrell Road interchange and use a new interchange to allow traffic to get on at Fourth Street and off at Sixth Street. Capitol Avenue, between Fourth and Sixth streets, also would be part of the new interchange.

It is the latter interchange incorporated into the six-plus-four lanes that has attracted support from some downtown Little Rock organizations. It also would eliminate 335 parking spaces, according to a department count.

The loss of parking space is disappointing to downtown retailers such as Don Dugan, who owns Dugan's Pub at 401. E. Third St., which is in the bustling River Market entertainment district at the foot of the I-30 bridge over the Arkansas River.

"If you love parking, it's not good for us," he said last week.

All four alternatives would eliminate nearly 200 parking spaces in the district and replace them with green space. The parking spaces are concentrated in three free-parking lots under or near the I-30/Cantrell Road interchange.

The lots are composed of 65 parking spaces in the circular lot inside a loop ramp on the west side of the interchange and between President Clinton Avenue and East Second Street; 44 spaces beneath an I-30 exit ramp, also on the west side; and 82 spaces directly underneath the interstate.

Dugan's Pub is at the corner of Third and Rock streets and two blocks from the nearest free-parking lot that would be eliminated. As much as Dugan and others lament the looming loss of parking, for now they are taking the long view.

The 3rd Street Merchants Associations, of which Dugan is the chairman, is among the downtown organizations that have endorsed the six through lanes with the four connector-distributor lanes that shifts the interchange away from the River Market District, saying that it would improve traffic flow, open up green space that will attract people to the district and "create a more pedestrian friendly, livable city."

As for the parking loss, Dugan said his establishment is across the street from a parking deck. He also said that if the loss of parking becomes an issue, there is time to address it. Construction on the corridor, if it goes forward, isn't scheduled to begin until 2018, and it will take about four years to complete.

"I feel like people can do something about it by the time the project is finished," he said.

The alternative that has been endorsed by the merchants group, the Downtown Little Rock Partnership and the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce also would eliminate on-street parking along sections of Fourth, Capitol and Sixth, generally between I-30 and Cumberland Street.

Eliminating the on-street parking would allow more traffic lanes on Fourth and Sixth to accommodate the increased traffic the new interchange would funnel between I-30 and downtown without having to widen either street.

The department counted 29 parking spaces on Fourth, 63 on Capitol and 52 on Sixth. Most are free spots, but 16 on Capitol have meters, and others on Capitol and Sixth are free but have a two-hour limit.

Those parking spots wouldn't have to be limited right away because the traffic volume that the extra space would require isn't expected until 20 years after the project's construction, said Jon Honeywell, the Little Rock public works director.

"That is something we would prefer to look at not the day it opens but look at it when that capacity becomes necessary," he said. "We can go back and look at that parking situation -- is that something we need to remove -- one side, both sides to provide that extra space to get more lanes of traffic."

A consultant for the city has recommended that Little Rock officials draw up an agreement with the Highway and Transportation Department on design features they want to see in the project. That agreement could include the on-street parking.

"Some of that comes down to what kind of traffic impact are you willing to put up with," Honeywell said. "If you don't provide a lot of lane space, there may be slower traffic, which everybody wants.

"Do I see it as a potential? Yes, especially if it's something the city wants to emphasize as one of their wishes for when this happens."

Honeywell said the same could be said for how traffic would go between Cantrell to the interstate if the alternative the merchants endorsed is adopted.

Traffic, for example, would have to get off Cantrell, or LaHarpe Boulevard, at Chester Street, travel south to Fourth and turn left onto Fourth. There is no left-hand turn for motorists at that intersection now.

But Honeywell said any improvements and who would pay for them hasn't been discussed in detail this early in the project.

"But it has been discussed, if that becomes a corridor across, we're going to have to look at these locations to see if something else is going to need to be done," he said. "Would that be incorporated into this project? Would that be something the city would have to look at, or a partnership? We haven't really got into that kind of detail yet."

As for the parking that the corridor project would eliminate, while 335 sounds like a large number, it represents a small number in the amount of parking available downtown.

The city has 1,293 parking spaces with meters, 520 spaces with time limits and another 800 free parking spaces, all on the street, according to Jack Wrenn, the city's parking enforcement officer.

The nearly 200 free spaces in the three free lots underneath and near the interstate are not included in the city's total, he said. Those spaces are in the Highway and Transportation Department's right of way and don't belong to the city.

The total doesn't include parking decks or the large number of parking lots belonging to private enterprises, many of which are available to the public for a fee. That parking accounts for a considerable amount of downtown space.

In the area bounded by I-30 on the east, Chester on the west, the river on the north and Interstate 630 on the south, almost 5.7 million square feet of land is taken up with buildings, according to Metroplan, the long-range transportation planning agency for central Arkansas. A little more than 5 million square feet is surface parking lots in the area.

"The building square footage is just the building footprint -- not the total square footage," said Jeff Runder, a Metroplan employee who provided the numbers. "It is getting close to a 1-to-1 ratio of buildings to parking.

"Of course, some of those 'buildings' are actually parking decks [702,000 square of the total]," he said. "So, actually more land is devoted to parking than to actual occupied buildings in downtown."

Some of the surface parking lots are disappearing, too. A lot off Capitol made way for an apartment building last year. This year, a hotel is replacing a lot at Fourth and Cumberland.

For some people, that is a good thing.

"Replacing surface lots with a new occupied building is an immense improvement," said Chris East, a Little Rock architect and board member for StudioMain, a local nonprofit organization with a mission "to create a better community through design."

He and others said buildings make property more valuable, which generates more in taxes for the city.

But East said he would prefer to see on-street parking remain.

"It's critically important to maintain parallel street parking," he said. "It provides parking needs for the public and serves to protect pedestrians from street traffic."

Metro on 05/30/2016

Upcoming Events