MAYFLOWER -- Jim Baker remembers when he first heard rumblings about the need for an overpass to alleviate the frequent traffic stoppages on a major artery through town.
It was sometime after Gerald Ward was elected Faulkner County judge, he said. That was in 1976, when one of the most common cars on the road was the Ford LTD.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Friday morning about a mile west of the new overpass -- and it was attended by roughly 100 people, including many like Baker, who waited decades for the highway and railway improvements to become a reality.
"This project was an easy one to get behind because of the safety impact and the congestion relief," Arkansas Highway Commission Chairman Alec Farmer said. "This checks all the boxes of what a good project looks like."
The $23.6 million project took two years to complete. Crews are still on site for some finishing touches, but the roads and ramps are open to traffic.
In order for the money to be designated for such a project in a city with barely more than 2,000 residents, there needed to be strength in numbers, officials said. Several entities needed to come together to raise awareness of the need for the overpass -- to convince people from Little Rock to Washington, D.C., that there was a vital need for it.
City and county officials had to be onboard, as well as the Legislature, a U.S. congressman, the railroad company and Metroplan, which is a group of government representatives that helps determine transportation needs across Central Arkansas. Baker said once Metroplan got involved, the pieces started to fall together.
The construction was done by Emery Sapp & Sons of Springfield, Mo., and it involved the construction of a railroad overpass and the replacement of the nearby Arkansas 89 bridge over Interstate 40, according to the Arkansas Department of Transportation.
School buses, ambulances, police cars, food-delivery trucks and other motorists came to a halt any time they approached the railroad crossing on Arkansas 89 while a Union Pacific train passed through Mayflower -- and that was something that often happened multiple times per day, officials said.
Even worse, when the train was stopped for a delayed amount of time, it caused school start times to be altered and forced emergency vehicles to take longer, alternative routes. Complaints were regularly made to Union Pacific, the city, the county and the state, according to the Transportation Department. In years past, news outlets printed and aired various stories about this source of frustration.
Arkansas 89 connects Mayflower to Cabot to its east. It intersects with the north-south railroad tracks in Mayflower.
"This here changes the landscape of the southern part of Faulkner County, there's no doubt about it," said Baker, 77, who served as Faulkner County judge from 2014 through 2022.
Now that a railroad overpass has been constructed, there won't be hourlong delays in the event of a train stoppage, officials said.
State Highway Commissioner Marie Holder said the daily traffic count through the area of the overpass is close to 10,000 vehicles per day.
Holder pointed out that the overpass' proximity to Lake Conway, I-40 and the railroad tracks made it a uniquely busy worksite for contractors and laborers. She added that she was grateful that everyone who worked on the overpass during the past two years "made it home safely every night."
The outcry for an overpass and better traffic flow through Mayflower actually predated Ward's tenure as county judge, according to U.S. Rep. French Hill, R-Ark. It began during the 1960s, when Lyndon Johnson was president, he said.
"Obviously, this is a long time coming for us," said Hill, who spoke during Friday's event. "This will have an impact on public safety and it will facilitate more growth and development in Mayflower and Faulkner County."
State Sen. Mark Johnson, R-Ferndale, called the overpass "a multi-generational dream."
Baker said he always wanted to see the overpass become a reality because he saw it as a symbol that Mayflower and Faulkner County are moving toward a brighter future.
"If you ask me, this is the bridge to the 21st century," Baker said. "There is not a place in Arkansas that is a greater example of that."
Vehicular traffic travels Friday over the new Arkansas 89 overpass across Interstate 40 in Mayflower. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Colin Murphey)