In an operation that was painstakingly precise, three towboats pushed and cables from two barges positioned upriver pulled as the first arch of the new Broadway Bridge was maneuvered into place Tuesday afternoon.
The process began about 8 a.m., although the actual movement of the 1,600-ton steel, basket-handled arch didn't start until 12:24 p.m. That's when a worker with an ax cut some of the thick rope that tethered the arch -- which was resting atop construction barges -- to piers on the north bank of the Arkansas River.
It took a little under an hour to move the arch less than 100 yards upstream. Finally, it was in place, hovering a few feet above the two new bridge piers where it will rest as part of the new bridge.
Bill Baxter, a 73-year-old retired U.S. Army major from Little Rock, was among onlookers watching from a vantage point on the Arkansas River Trail along the river's north bank.
[BROADWAY BRIDGE: More videos + traffic map, cameras, previous coverage, photos here]
Baxter had arrived at 8:15 a.m., bicycling from Two Rivers Park. As time went on, some early-arriving onlookers gave up on seeing the arch positioned. But since it was a spectacularly sunny and warm November day, Baxter said, he waited, and his patience was rewarded.
"Superman couldn't do much better," he said of the operation.
Once the arch hovered in the correct place, workers from Massman Construction Co., the Kansas City, Mo., contractor for the $98.4 million project, spent the rest of the afternoon using the same towboats and cables to precisely align the arch over the new bridge piers.
They were "positioning the arch horizontally and vertically to get it in the exact position it needs to be because once it is down, it's going to stay down," said Danny Straessle, a spokesman for the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department.
He said the placement of the arch was critical because a second arch will have to line up with the first one. The second arch is expected to be floated into place within days, along with the steel girders that will eventually be added.
Shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday, Scott Eldridge, the department's construction coordinator for the Broadway Bridge project, said the arch was "now touching on all four corners and resting on the [pier] caps."
Freeing the arch from the construction barges on which it had floated and moving the barges out from under the arch took place shortly before 6 p.m., he said.
Tuesday's activity was slow, leading many onlookers to wonder if it would occur at all. But the towboats eventually began moving the construction barges ferrying the arch. Construction workers could be seen at the top of the pier closest to the north bank.
The slow start Tuesday morning was because a construction-crew safety meeting ran long, and a separate meeting was held with the towboat operators to "make sure everyone was on the same page," according to Straessle.
As noon approached, about a dozen workers were stationed on the four barges that supported the arch. They could be seen checking portable water pumps that would be used to pump water into the barges to lower them in the water once the arch was positioned over the piers for the new bridge.
The towboats also got into position. One was stationed at either end of the river-side of the barges, and eventually a third towboat moved in to join the work.
Then, one worker cut the ropes holding the arch to the temporary piers lining the north bank, leaving just one thick, green rope tied to a pier. It acted as a pivot point in the operation. The upstream end of the arch slowly swung out into the river, given a boost by the towboat stationed on the aft end.
At 12:43 p.m., a worker untied the green rope, and the construction barges were finally free of the construction piers. The work then shifted to the towboats and two barges stationed just upriver from the bridge site.
At 12:51 p.m., the arch atop the construction barges appeared to be lined up with the opening between the two new piers, and it was slowly pushed and pulled upriver. The barges narrowly cleared the construction piers.
By that time, even other workers on the project had stopped to behold the spectacle.
By 1:20 p.m., the arch appeared to be positioned over the new piers.
The second arch won't be floated into place until two footings remaining from the old bridge, including one on the south bank, are removed with explosives. Workers could be heard Tuesday drilling into those footings -- all that are left of the 93-year-old bridge that is being replaced.
Tuesday was Day 46 in the six-month project to replace the bridge that connects Little Rock and North Little Rock and reopen it to traffic. An estimated 25,000 vehicles normally used the old bridge each day to cross the Arkansas River. The project's six-month timetable officially began Oct. 1.
Massman was awarded the contract in September 2014. Initial work on the project began in January 2015, with much of it building the new piers in the river.
Under the terms of the contract, Massman is required to close the old bridge, build the new one and open it to traffic on or before March 29.
The contract includes an "incentive/disincentive clause" in which the contractor can earn up to $80,000 per day, up to a maximum of 50 days, for every day that the project finishes early. Conversely, the company will have to pay $80,000 a day for every day the project goes past the six months.
The Highway and Transportation Department originally proposed a Broadway Bridge design that's similar to the Main Street Bridge, but local leaders persuaded the department to incorporate two basket-handle arches into the design. Pulaski County committed $20 million to cover the extra cost. Local leaders say the basket-handle span will become a distinctive landmark in the region.
Many of Tuesday's onlookers, including Baxter, have made repeat visits to the downtown area to watch the progress in removing the old bridge and constructing the new one.
"History is being made," Baxter said. "I came out to see the old bridge being removed. Now I'm watching the new bridge going up. I want to make sure I was witnessing history being made as it occurred. This is something I will be able to tell my grandkids."
Metro on 11/16/2016