War Eagle Bridge work on schedule
Benton County says good weather will help ensure reopening in September
BENTONVILLE — Repair work to the historic War Eagle Bridge is on schedule, with a reopening in September as originally planned, Benton County officials said.
“Thus far, everything seems to be going well,” County Judge Barry Moehring said. “They had some issues early on getting some of the materials, some of the steel they needed to use, but that’s been taken care of. So, we’re looking at it being completed on schedule and in time for the fall crafts fair.”
The War Eagle Bridge, a one-lane bridge built by the Illinois Steel Bridge Co. in 1907, is significant as one of the few Parker truss bridges in Arkansas. The 304-foot steel bridge crosses War Eagle Creek on Benton County Road 98 about 15 miles east of Rogers and sits next to a reconstructed grist mill, which is the fourth in a series of mills on the site dating to 1832.
The bridge was closed the week of May 8 and will remain closed until the work is done. The county awarded the contract to repair the almost 110-year-old bridge to Crossland Heavy Construction. The contract included a final completion date of Sept. 30, but Moehring said the work could be finished earlier.
Pat Adams, justice of the peace and chairman of the Benton County Transportation Committee, said the weather needs to cooperate in the coming months.
“It looks like as long as we get good construction weather, we’ll make the September opening like we’ve anticipated,” Adams said.
The county has restricted traffic on the bridge since 2013 by lowering the weight limit to 3 tons. The county spent about $640,000 on repairs to the bridge in 2010, but state inspectors found critical deficiencies during an inspection in 2013.
The county hired Great River Engineering of Springfield, Mo., to inspect the bridge and identify problems, then do design work and develop a scope of work to restore the bridge. The firm developed a three-tiered approach with each additional step including more repair to extend the life of the bridge.
Brenda Guenther, comptroller, said the county has $1.4 million in the budget for the work. The county has been awarded a $500,000 federal grant to reimburse some of the cost once the work is done under the Transportation Alternatives Program, a federal-aid program to construct sidewalks and trails for pedestrians, bicyclists and other nonmotorized forms of transportation. The War Eagle Bridge project was one of 71 projects selected to share $16 million from the program during 2015.
The Quorum Court authorized Moehring to apply for the additional grant money at its April meeting. The maximum amount of grant money the county could receive on the project would be about $1.1 million, Guenther said at that time. The county has to provide a 20 percent match for any grant funds awarded.
Marc Trollinger, county fire marshal, said emergency response agencies have implemented plans to deal with the bridge being closed, some of which were put into effect when the weight restrictions were adopted.
Ambulance coverage will be provided by Hickory Creek Fire Station crews, Trollinger said. Firefighters from Nob Hill in Washington County and Hickory Creek in Benton County will be ready to aid Piney Point Fire Department volunteers if needed, Trollinger said. Response times will remain essentially the same, he said.
“It has been tested and it is working,” Trollinger said of the emergency response. “We had a brush fire call … and we sent mutual aid.”
The county has adopted a policy of sending assistance more rapidly than it has in the past to account for any added travel time and distance, Trollinger said.
“If we have a grass fire, we go ahead and dispatch mutual aid,” Trollinger said. “If it’s a medic call, we dispatch a Benton County ambulance from Hickory Creek instead of Rogers. They actually have a quicker response time.”