Up to 90,000 drivers who use the Interstate 430 bridge daily got an early valentine from state highway officials who announced Tuesday the postponement of the weekend shutdown of all but one lane of the Arkansas River crossing between Little Rock and North Little Rock.
The contractor on the $81 million project to improve the I-430/Cantrell Road interchange didn't want to risk the shutdown with wintry weather in the forecast for the weekend, said Dave Parker, the spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Transportation.
The lane closures have been tentatively rescheduled for the following weekend, beginning Feb. 19.
"It will be open this weekend, Valentine's Day weekend, it will be open," he said in a video posted on Twitter. "We are doing this because the contractor who's handling this project doesn't feel comfortable with the potential winter weather."
The forecast from the National Weather Service gives a 20% chance of snow Saturday and a 40% chance Monday, which is Washington's Birthday. Rain also is in the weekend forecast.
"We needed that forecast to improve," Parker said. "It looks like it's not going to happen."
The department announced the I-430 shutdown earlier this month to give drivers who use the bridge plenty of notice, seeking to head off likely traffic backups that agency officials said were all but inevitable because the detours would be unable to handle the increase in traffic.
The operation involves closing all southbound lanes between Cantrell Road, also called Arkansas 10, in Little Rock and Interstate 40 in North Little Rock and all northbound lanes between North Rodney Parham and Cantrell roads.
Further, any northbound traffic on I-430 north of I-630 must exit at Rodney Parham Road and be diverted to a detour leading to Cantrell Road, where traffic may re-enter I-430 North. A single lane across the Arkansas River Bridge on I-430 North will be open during the closing period.
Northbound I-430 traffic will be redirected through city streets, including residential and small-business-lined roads. The detour route will be North Rodney Parham to Pleasant Valley Drive and then to Cantrell Road just east of the interstate.
According to the Transportation Department, truck traffic will not be permitted on the detour route and will be redirected to Interstate 30 and Interstate 440.
Limiting traffic around the interchange will allow the contractor, Kiewit Infrastructure South Inc. of Fort Worth, to erect structural beams and install safety platforms in and around the interchange.
Using a single weekend to do the work will minimize the number of overnight lane closings required and reduce the risk of crashes for drivers as well as construction workers, the department said.
The project involves widening Cantrell Road between Pleasant Valley Drive and Pleasant Ridge Road. The section, which crosses I-430, carries up to 54,000 vehicles daily, making it the busiest non-interstate road in Arkansas.
The project is centered on a single-point urban interchange design in which the section of Cantrell Road, widened to six lanes from four, will use a ramp to carry traffic over the North Rodney Parham Road intersection rather than through it, as Cantrell does now.
The elevated roadway is similar to the ramp that carries traffic on I-630 over South Shackleford Road in the I-430/I-630 interchange.
The "single point" in the interchange design would be underneath Cantrell at North Rodney Parham. One traffic signal would control traffic moving onto or off Cantrell, allowing motorists traveling east and west on Cantrell to avoid stopping at a light to accommodate North Rodney Parham traffic. Planners identified that light as a source of much of the current congestion in the corridor.
The bridge closing has been rescheduled to begin at 8 p.m. on Feb. 19, a Friday, and continue through 5 a.m. on Feb. 21, a Monday, weather permitting.