LR backs $4.6M for UAMS plan

Revamp aims for safer streets

During Cam Patterson’s first week on the job, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences chancellor says he received emails from two different employees about almost being hit by vehicles on the campus.

On Tuesday, Patterson cheered the Little Rock Board of Directors’ approval of $4.6 million in funding to realign Pine and Cedar Streets, a project officials hope will make it easier and safer to access the hospital and medical campus. UAMS will pay the balance of the $11.9 million project.

The road project is part of a planned $156 million building project for UAMS. The city’s contribution, which city directors approved at the board’s regular meeting Tuesday, will come from Little Rock’s street fund.

UAMS officials said the hospital’s $7.3 million portion and funding for the rest of the project will come from a proposed bond from the University of Arkansas System.

The project will remake Pine Street into a four-lane boulevard stretching from West Markham Street to Interstate 630 and transform several blocks of what is now Cedar Street into a pedestrian and fire service road absorbed into the UAMS campus. UAMS already owns the property, Public Works Director Jon Honeywell said.

UAMS officials said the current alignment of the streets is a major safety issue for the campus and that the project will create corridors with limited traffic.

“It’ll make it safer for people in that community,” Patterson said. “If you’ve ever driven through that neighborhood, there are areas where there’s really no crosswalk control because of the flow and the fact that you go straight through from the south; people can be driving much faster than is safe.”

Patterson added that the project will help define the east border of the UAMS campus.

Ward 3 City Director Kathy Webb, who represents the area that contains UAMS and the project, said she believes the project is needed due to safety concerns.

Honeywell said the road redesign has been discussed for several years.

Christina Clark, UAMS chief operating officer and vice chancellor for institutional support services, said UAMS also received a grant to install outdoor exercise equipment, which it plans to use to install an outdoor track near Cedar Street that will be available to anyone.

Representatives of the Hillcrest and Capitol View-Stifft Station neighborhood associations who attended Tuesday’s board meeting said they plan to continue to keep an eye on the project as it moves forward.

Eric McDaniel, president of the Hillcrest Neighborhood Association, said UAMS officials have been responsive to questions from residents since he started trying to learn more about the project.

The proposed $156 million bond still requires approval from the UA System; a vote has not yet been set.