North Little Rock officials have created a Web page to help commuters navigate anticipated traffic flow problems after the Broadway Bridge is closed Wednesday.
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http://www.arkansas…">Broadway Bridge shuts this week
The span over the Arkansas River between the downtowns of Little Rock and North Little Rock is being closed so it can be dismantled and replaced -- a project expected to take six months.
A section on the North Little Rock government's website, named the "Broadway Bridge Survival Guide," lists several suggested alternative routes, real-time streaming from selected traffic cameras, construction updates, bridge history and a project timeline that shows, as it says on the Web page, "when the nightmare will be over (we think)."
To see the guide, residents can visit the city website, nlr.ar.gov, and click on the "Residents" tab or visit the "City of North Little Rock-Government" Facebook page, where a link has been posted.
The survival guide was an idea by Mayor Joe Smith that was developed by the city's Communications Department.
"The Communications Department's job is to make sure people know what's going on in the city," Communications Director Nathan Hamilton said Friday. "The mayor just thought this would be a great way to help people through this tragedy of a traffic situation."
The city first promoted the survival guide Thursday. Hamilton said the most popular feature, according to "hits" on the sites's different features, were the traffic cameras, especially the one showing the ongoing construction of the new bridge next to the current one.
The traffic cameras' live streaming, though, will come at a cost to the city from the company providing the real-time images, Wowza Media Systems. The city's costs are still to be determined, depending on a final pricing plan based on usage, Hamilton said.
"The traffic cam usage was just about 20 times higher than we expected," Hamilton said. "We had to turn them off a little bit [Friday] morning and talk to our provider and get on a new pricing plan. We're still figuring that out as we go."
One traffic tip on the Web page, City Engineer Chris Wilbourn said Friday, is that morning commuters wanting to go south toward downtown should avoid the John F. Kennedy Boulevard exit off Interstate 40 that leads to Main Street and takes traffic past North Little Rock High School.
"The reason is, we've got rush-hour traffic coming [on JFK] from Park Hill and the North Little Rock High School opening up for the day," Wilbourn said.
During the evening rush hour, Wilbourn said, the city hopes some drivers heading west to Pike Avenue will use Riverfront Drive instead of taking West Broadway from downtown.
"We're trying to get traffic to flow somewhat to Riverfront," he said. "It's got better capacity rather than getting into the congestion of downtown."
Alternate routes listed on the city's Web page offer only suggestions for commuters and aren't designated detour routes, Hamilton said.
"We fully understand that there's no magic solution," Hamilton said. "We don't even pretend to offer any. Maybe some of this will help people plan a little better. Check a traffic camera before you leave to see if you waited long enough to miss the rush."
Metro on 09/26/2016