City awards street-makeover contract
Aim is adding bike lanes, crosswalks, better lighting along two blocks
Two blocks of upper Malvern Avenue in Hot Springs will be going on a diet next year.
That’s the phrase used by the architect who envisioned a dynamic streetscape for the southern approach into downtown.
The $329,085 contract that the Hot Springs Board of Directors awarded last week to Goslee Construction Co. will bring Stephen D. Luoni and the University of Arkansas Community Design Center’s vision into sharper focus. The plan is to add bike lanes, crosswalks, sidewalk improvements, a bus shelter and pedestrian lighting from Grove to Gulpha streets.
Luoni told the board in 2018 that part of upper Malvern Avenue’s ample right of way for vehicle traffic can be repurposed for bicycle and pedestrian traffic. Putting the eight-block stretch from East Grand Avenue to Spring Street on a “diet” gives walking, biking and the social sphere greater parity with vehicle traffic, he said.
He said remaking part of the right of way into a social space is critical to returning the Gateway Community and Pleasant Street Historic District to their former glory. The UA center’s design concept also included pedestrian plazas, sculpture gardens and green infrastructure.
The contract that the board awarded Goslee is the first the city has issued for the Malvern Avenue Gateway Corridor and District Plan. A Federal Transit Administration grant will pay $263,268, and $65,817 in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant funds will pay the balance of the contract.
“That’s $329,000 of revitalization for that section of town and part of our continued movement in creating a well-improved Gateway corridor and make that a very vibrant part of our community,” Mayor Pat McCabe told the board. “We’re happy to be able to announce that today and look forward to that.”
City Engineer Gary Carnahan said Goslee should begin work next month. A preconstruction meeting is scheduled for Tuesday. Goslee’s bid was the lowest of the four submitted.
Carnahan said the city was waiting to bid the job until Entergy Arkansas Inc. buried overhead transmission lines on the west side of Malvern Avenue. The city entered into an agreement with Entergy in the spring of 2019 to move the lines underground from Grove to Gulpha streets, but the relocation has yet to take place.
“The city has paid Entergy to do the work,” Carnahan said. “We had hoped that Entergy would have their work completed by now, so we’ll have to coordinate Entergy’s work with this contractor’s work. I believe there’s enough work for the contractor to do and work around the Entergy work. We decided not to wait any longer.
“On the west side there are some big transmission lines. They are the ones we’re making a priority to move. Some day we hope to remove the ones on the other side of the street, but they’re smaller poles and smaller wires. They’re not as noticeable. Also there are wires going back and forth across the street. When we remove the big poles, we will also remove those wires that are crisscrossing overhead across the street. That will help a lot visually.”
The city said Goslee’s work will improve access to the Intracity Transit System for pedestrians, bicycle riders and people with disabilities. The two-block area is within walking distance of Transportation Depot on Broadway Street. It’s also a conduit to the Hot Springs Creek Greenway Trail, the Hot Springs Farmers & Artisans Market, the Pleasant Street Historic District and downtown.
“It is also hoped that improved access to public transportation, safety and security will increase access to employment, a resurgence of pride and hope in the community and restoration and preservation of the homes included in the historic district,” the engineering department said in its request for board action. “These impacts will hopefully serve to deter crime in the area and reduce the trend of historic homes shifting to a noncontributing status.”
The 2017 American Community Service Census revealed the extent of human and capital flight from historic neighborhoods south of downtown, showing that the number of occupied homes in the Gateway and Langston Gardens neighborhoods near the Malvern and East Grand intersection decreased by more than 50% compared with 2000 census levels.
The ratio disqualified the neighborhoods from receiving Community Development Block Grant infrastructure funding, which became the focus of the city’s block grant program after it pivoted from housing rehabilitation in 2014.
According to information presented at the board’s 2021 budget meeting in October, a $745,127 cost is estimated to complete the Grove-to-Gulpha section of the Gateway plan.