The free Rock Region Metro streetcar shuttle over the Main Street Bridge, billed as an alternative to crossing the Arkansas River while the Broadway Bridge is replaced, will no longer operate because it was "negatively impacting traffic," according to Little Rock and North Little Rock officials.
The shuttle between the Verizon station in North Little Rock and the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce station offered service from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 3:45 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. for people who work or live in Argenta and downtown Little Rock, or for people who parked and wanted to ride.
"City officials think it is negatively impacting traffic," Rock Region said in a news release announcing that the streetcar shuttle wouldn't resume Friday.
The issue was the ability of the streetcar to pre-empt the traffic signal at Main and East Washington Avenue in North Little Rock, which is at the foot of the Main Street Bridge, city officials said.
[BROADWAY BRIDGE: Find traffic map, cameras, pervious coverage, photos here]
"When the streetcar used the function that allowed it to change all the traffic lights at the intersection, it was throwing off the critical cycle timing of the traffic signal coordination with the other intersections and Little Rock," Nathan Hamilton, the spokesman for North Little Rock, said in an email. "This was contributing to the traffic backups into Little Rock."
Jennifer Godwin, the Little Rock spokesman, agreed.
Though the issue was on the North Little Rock side, "what affects traffic on Main in NLR also affects LR's Scott Street," Godwin said in an email.
She said Rock Region Metro alleviated the issue somewhat during the Thursday evening rush hour by using personnel to direct the trolley.
"Thursday during the evening commute instead of the preemption a Rock Region METRO employee was manually flagging the trolley across there and it worked out, with traffic flowing smoothly and the commute better than expected," Godwin wrote. "But [Rock Region Metro] couldn't provide an employee for that for the duration of the project."
Rock Region Metro, in announcing the streetcar shuttle, said the service wasn't set in stone and that it would be evaluated as time goes by. The streetcar operates its normal routes outside of the peak traffic times.
The Broadway Bridge, which opened to traffic on Christmas Day in 1922 and was built at a cost of $970,000, was closed to traffic Wednesday to allow a contractor to dismantle the bridge and replace it with a new one by March 28, 2017.
The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department awarded Massman Construction Co. of Kansas City, Mo., a $98.4 million contract to replace the bridge.
Officials on both sides of the river made changes to their traffic lights and street markings to help offset the loss of a river crossing for 25,000 vehicles per day. They anticipated that many would go over the underutilized Main Street Bridge, which carries about 12,000 vehicles daily.
Traffic lights on Little Rock's Scott Street and on Main Street in downtown North Little Rock have gone from a 70-second cycle to a 90-second cycle in favor of north-south traffic. This cycle occurs from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
City engineers have since tweaked the traffic light cycle some more. At Scott and Second streets, the 90-second cycle initially was divided between 55 seconds for Scott traffic and 35 seconds for Second. Now, Scott traffic gets 65 seconds and Second traffic gets 25, according to Godwin.
She also urged people to avoid using Markham Street to turn north onto Scott.
"The biggest piece of advice we can share to those who are leaving downtown Little Rock in the afternoon is to not take Markham to Scott Street to cross the Main Street Bridge," Godwin wrote. "Use the preferred route, which is 4th Street, to turn onto Scott."
Meanwhile, city officials expressed some regret that the streetcar shuttle didn't work out.
"We love the streetcar, but in this temporary instance, the delays were having an unfortunate impact," Hamilton said.
Metro on 10/01/2016