A busy overpass in North Little Rock, Ark., has recently gotten some much needed attention as city officials have pushed for federal funding with hopes that they can avoid an infrastructure nightmare.
Anyone looking underneath the 95-year-old Main Street Viaduct can see that the condition of the overpass is deteriorating, Little Rock television station KTHV reported July 7.
Among the viaduct's problems are several sections where wiring is exposed and concrete has fallen onto the train tracks below.
North Little Rock Mayor Terry Hartwick and the city's Chief Engineer Chris Wilbourn, though, told the news station that despite its outward appearance, the Main Street Viaduct is still safe for motorists to drive over.
However, they also said the viaduct cannot be repaired and will need to be replaced in the coming years.
For people traveling in the city, the Main Street Viaduct has been a vital crossing along a busy downtown street.
"Seventeen thousand cars a day going and coming," Hartwick noted.
City Exploring All Avenues to Pay for Fix
The years have not been kind to the bridge, KTHV reported, and North Little Rock's mayor has been among those that have pushed for its replacement.
"I started bringing our congressional district [members] down and taking them underneath the bridge," Hartwick explained.
A 2021 report by the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) listed the Main Street Viaduct as being in "poor" condition.
With its plight in mind, Wilbourn said he has studied and worked on a replacement bridge plan for more than five years.
"We've done some preliminary layout work of the bridge," he told KTHV.
The next step, he added, would be to do design and environmental work.
"[It] is a historical bridge, so there's a process that you [must] go through on replacement of historical bridges," Wilbourn said.
Hartwick explained that to raise funding for the replacement, the city has applied for a federal Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant, which allows the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to invest in road, rail, transit and port projects that would promise to achieve various national goals.
In all, he said, the construction to replace the viaduct would cost between $30 million to $35 million, with the RAISE grant accounting for about $25 million.
The City of Little Rock is prepared to pay the remaining amount, he added.
Viaduct to Be Built With Little Disruption to Railroad
One the city's biggest hurdles is building a new viaduct over the active, multi-track Union Pacific railyard. The railroad company runs all its main lines through North Little Rock beneath the old structure.
As the city is a major hub for the rail company, an "accelerated bridge construction project" is now under consideration, Wilbourn said.
Crews would build the foundation of the new bridge first and add the deck of the structure toward the end of the project, according to KTHV. Wilbourn hopes that can be done quickly to keep disruption of Union Pacific's rail traffic to a minimum.
For his part, Hartwick noted that he is happy his fellow city leaders have decided to act on addressing the degradation of the viaduct's structure.
"Our city engineers have to make sure things are safe," he explained. "So, we're there every month, watching it [to] make sure it doesn't get any worse."
In their remarks to KTHV, Hartwick and Wilbourn stressed that the demolition and construction process of the new Main Street Viaduct will not begin until after the current Interstate 30 project has been completed.
That work involves improving a 7-mi.-long stretch of the freeway through both Little Rock and North Little Rock. It is slated to be finished in 2025.
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