The city of Little Rock is getting ready to bid out construction work that will continue a vegetation, water filtration and street redesign project on downtown Main Street into the 600 and 700 blocks.
In all, engineers estimate it will cost about $1 million to complete the work that will extend the rain gardens and other design features along Main Street.
The city started the water runoff project and street redesign in the 100 to 500 blocks of Main Street in 2014 and finished in the fall of 2015. That phase cost $2 million in construction, not including engineering and design costs or signs.
The city is now concentrating on Phase II -- the 600 and 700 blocks -- to give the street a unified look.
Like Phase I, this part of the project "will use rain gardens, vegetation, and pervious pavers to slow down, filter, and temporarily store rainwater runoff. Phase II of the project will add a combination of sand filters, trash guards, skimmers, and inlet filter sacks at strategic locations to collect trash and debris, which will further improve the water quality," said Caran Curry, the city's grants manager.
An Arkansas Natural Resources Commission grant will cover $536,000 of the project's cost.
In addition to the vegetation and runoff features, the city plans to add lighting to the 600 and 700 blocks.
"People really liked the brightness of the lighting that was installed in the 500 block. So in this new project, they wanted those kind of lights," Mayor Mark Stodola said.
In the 600 block, there are four older light fixtures on each side of the street. They will be cleaned up and outfitted with LED lights, and then similar fixtures that are in the 500 block will be added in between each of the current fixtures in the 600 block.
Globed lighting similar to what is installed in the 100 and 200 blocks will be installed in the 700 block, Stodola said.
The city's Public Works Department gave a short presentation Wednesday to a committee of t̶h̶e̶ ̶D̶o̶w̶n̶t̶o̶w̶n̶ ̶L̶i̶t̶t̶l̶e̶ ̶R̶o̶c̶k̶ ̶P̶a̶r̶t̶n̶e̶r̶s̶h̶i̶p̶ ̶b̶o̶a̶r̶d* about the status of the project.
City Engineer Jamie Collins reported that a bid advertisement for construction work will be put out in the next month.
The project likely will take about a year to plan and complete, Collins said, noting the city will have to work with business and property owners along Main Street when closing down portions of the street to do the project. The project must be complete by September 2018, Curry said.
On-street parking along the 600 and 700 blocks will be moved around, but no parking spots will be lost. The project proposal contains 36 parking spots, compared with the 34 that are currently on that portion of the street.
Anne Laidlaw, co-chairman of t̶h̶e̶ ̶D̶o̶w̶n̶t̶o̶w̶n̶ ̶P̶a̶r̶t̶n̶e̶r̶s̶h̶i̶p̶ ̶b̶o̶a̶r̶d̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶ ̶m̶e̶m̶b̶e̶r̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶i̶t̶s* the Main Street Revitalization Committee, said the group is pleased with the plans.
"They are definitely moving toward accomplishing one of the main goals, which was to create a new streetscape for Main Street that was consistent throughout -- to get rid of the patchwork look. We want each block to look like it fits in the plan," Laidlaw said. "We have finally reached a point where the plan is moving in the direction we've been working on for years now."
She also mentioned that partnership members and city officials are taking notice of how infrastructure installed in Phase I is holding up and learning from that for Phase II.
For example, underground features of the porous pavement that were installed in the 300 block during the first phase of the project aren't holding up as planned, so that feature isn't being included in Phase II. Curry said some have blamed 18-wheelers' use of the road for small depressions in the 300 block.
"The improvements we are learning from in the blocks that have been completed are causing adjustments to be made so we can improve upon the project. Overall, we are very pleased with the sidewalk improvements, the planning and the consistency of what is being carried down the street," Laidlaw said.
Metro on 04/06/2017
*CORRECTION: A committee of the Little Rock Downtown Partnership met Wednesday to discuss upgrades to part of Main Street. An article and photo cutline in Thursday’s paper incorrectly identified the committee as the partnership’s board. Anne Laidlaw is co-chairman of the Main Street Revitalization Committee, not the full board.