The plan to all but close the Interstate 430 bridge over the Arkansas River this weekend has been postponed because of the weather. Again.
The delay marks the second weekend in a row that a series of snow-laden weather systems, combined this time with bitterly low temperatures, disrupted the Arkansas Department of Transportation's plans to shut down all but one lane of the crossing between Little Rock and North Little Rock in order to accommodate work on an $81 million project to improve the I-430/Cantrell Road interchange.
The lane closings have been rescheduled for the following weekend, beginning on Feb. 26, a week from Friday.
No snow is in the forecast for the coming weekend, but another round forecast to begin Tuesday night was expected to drop up to 8 inches, while low temperatures expected to linger until Friday.
"The contractor is worried about their workers, I'm sure," said agency spokesman Dave Parker.
The National Weather Service in North Little Rock doesn't expect temperatures to climb above freezing until Friday, and then only to 34 degrees. The low on Friday night, when the work was to begin, is forecast to be 16 degrees.
The long-range weather forecast provides more suitable conditions at this point with highs next week approaching 60 degrees, Parker said.
The department announced the I-430 shutdown earlier this month to give drivers who use the bridge plenty of notice in a bid to head off traffic backups.
The operation will involve 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.
Any northbound traffic on I-430 north of I-630 will have to exit at Rodney Parham Road and divert to a detour leading to Cantrell Road, where traffic may re-enter I-430 northbound. A single northbound lane across the Arkansas River Bridge on I-430 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 Road 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 will now begin at 8 p.m. on Feb. 26 and extend until 5 a.m. on March 1.
Weather permitting, of course, the department said.