The world didn't end Wednesday with the much-anticipated first rush hour in downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock without the Broadway Bridge, but traffic was held up a little.
The evening commute, which started about six hours after the 93-year-old bridge closed, involved longer and slower than usual lines of vehicles on both sides of the Arkansas River, but it was nothing like the traffic Armageddon some had feared.
"Downtown drivers did a remarkable job on their Wednesday afternoon commute, the first true test of this brave new world without the Broadway Bridge," said Jennifer Godwin, a Little Rock spokesman. "According to our traffic engineering division, everything ran fine, and vehicles were able to get across the Main Street Bridge into North Little Rock with little trouble, and once in North Little Rock, motorists traveled Main Street with no major problems.
"It may have taken a little longer, but everyone seemed to be heeding the advice to be patient, which is very much appreciated. We did see more people leaving earlier than usual, too."
Jim Smith of North Little Rock was expecting more traffic on his commute home Wednesday afternoon with the Broadway Bridge closed, and he saw it. He was in a long line of vehicles, two abreast, on Scott Street in Little Rock headed north at a crawl about 5 p.m. Wednesday. The line of traffic stretched back several blocks.
[BROADWAY BRIDGE: Find traffic map, cameras, pervious coverage, photos here]
"I can tell a difference," Smith said while he waited in traffic at West Capitol Avenue and Scott. "It's worse for this time of day."
Godwin said no accidents were reported on Broadway or Scott, Third or Fourth streets between 3:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. "There was one accident at Markham and Spring during that time," she said.
North Little Rock Mayor Joe Smith monitored the rush-hour commute on the north side of the river from his city's traffic center and said that as of 5:15 p.m. it was "going surprisingly well."
"From what we're seeing on our side of the river ... it's moving great over here," he said. "We just timed a bus from Scott [Street] to our side, and it took 2 minutes for him to get all the way over the [Main Street] bridge. Interstate traffic right now is moving perfectly."
Still, Smith said, city officials likely will adjust the timing of the traffic signals along Main Street. The signals are now set for 90 seconds during peak travel times and "might go to 100 seconds. We'll make that adjustment tonight," he said.
Scott Street traffic on the Little Rock side of the river appeared to return to normal before 6 p.m.
The Broadway Bridge closed Wednesday morning to allow construction workers to dismantle it and replace it with a new span at a cost of $98.4 million.
Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department Director Scott Bennett said Wednesday at a morning bridge-closing ceremony that the span is being replaced after nearly 100 years of service for 100 times more than the $970,000 it cost to build it in 1922.
The closing leaves the 25,000 motorists who used the bridge daily looking for other ways across the Arkansas River for at least the next six months, the deadline in the contract that Massman Construction Co. of Kansas City, Mo., has to have the new bridge open to traffic.
"Be patient," said Tom Schueck, a member of the Arkansas Highway Commission. "There will be an end to this trying time."
Under the contract, Massman has until March 28, 2017, to open the new bridge to traffic. State highway officials have expressed guarded optimism that the bridge could open sooner.
The old bridge was formally closed Wednesday morning with a brief "decommissioning" ceremony held in the middle of the span. The old bridge had been dedicated in March 1923 to honor Arkansans who served during World War I.
In the background at Wednesday's ceremony, construction workers could be seen and heard laboring on two arches for the new bridge that will be floated into place once the old bridge is removed.
For the decommissioning, the Arkansas Army National Guard provided an honor guard, and officer Allison Walton of the Little Rock Police Department sang the national anthem. Speeches by several dignitaries followed.
They spoke about the history of the old bridge and the promise of the new one.
"It may not be too popular of a project for the next few months, but I am confident the new bridge will be an aesthetic and functional structure that will continue to link our communities and provide an artery for commerce," said Barry Hyde, county judge for Pulaski County.
He said the new bridge, like the old one, will honor veterans,but the new one will be a "living tribute" to all veterans past, present and future, not solely to those who served in World War I.
It's not merely "farewell to the bridge but to an important piece of history," he said Wednesday.
The span connected families and cities, and allowed people the "freedom to live and work wherever they wanted," he said. "We are a county divided by a body of water joined by our bridge system," he said.
When the bridge first opened on Christmas Day in 1923, the first people to officially drive across it were members of the improvement district that raised the money to build it.
As a bookend for that Wednesday, four members of the Arkansas Highway Commission -- Chairman Dick Trammel of Rogers, Schueck and Frank Scott Jr., both of Little Rock, and Alec Farmer of Jonesboro -- were the last to drive off the bridge.
The last members of the motoring public to drive over the bridge were Hope Young, 35, of Sherwood and her sister Rekena Roberts, 39, of Little Rock.
They hadn't planned to be the last, and, in fact, thought they had missed the opportunity while they were out running errands Wednesday morning, Roberts said.
"We just wanted to see it one last time," said Roberts, whose 3-year-old son was along for the ride. "We use it every day."
Young was driving her Ford Explorer with her sister in the front passenger seat using the camera on her smartphone to record their final drive over the bridge. Roberts said she will show the recording to her husband who was out of town.
"We are a part of history," Young said.
Metro on 09/29/2016