Date decision expected soon on Broadway Bridge closing
State sees next month as earliest for step on LR-NLR span
Decision day on whether to close the Broadway Bridge as soon as Sept. 15 is drawing near — perhaps as soon as this week.
The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department wants three weeks’ notice from the contractor on whether the bridge will be closed for up to six months so it can be removed and a new one built, said Danny Straessle, the agency spokesman.
The bridge closure will force the 25,000 motorists who use the bridge daily to find another way to cross the Arkansas River between downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock.
North Little Rock Mayor Joe Smith said he hasn’t been told definitively when the bridge is going to close, having heard Sept. 15 but also the spring.
He said he has issued the same warning in speeches he gives to civic organizations and in other venues: “You know you don’t think it’s going to happen, but it’s going to happen. You better be ready because it’s going to happen.”
Thursday will be three weeks before Sept. 15, which Straessle described as the “first window of opportunity” to close the bridge. The bridge closure could be delayed until late September or early October, Straessle said. If it goes much beyond that, the closure likely will be delayed until spring, he said.
The decision on Sept. 15 could come as soon as Thursday, which is the day of the weekly progress meeting among officials with the contractor and the department and others affected by the bridge, including representatives from Little Rock and North Little Rock.
“If they are going to shoot for the 15th, we should know something by the end of the week,” Straessle said.
The bridge originally had a tentative schedule that would see it closed from May until November, but depart-
ment officials announced in March that it would be put off until this fall or next spring after high water on the Arkansas River limited the work that the contractor, Massman Construction Co. of Kansas City, Mo., could do.
The prefabricated steel needed to construct the twin arches also didn’t arrive on the schedule Massman had anticipated.
The arches, which are the biggest feature of the new bridge, are being built by Veritas Steel LLC of Eau Claire, Wis. The company said it was fabricating the steel for one arch at its Eau Claire facility and fabricating the steel for the second at another company facility in Palatka, Fla.
Only one of the arches has been built. The schedule for the delivery of the prefabricated steel for the second arch will be a “significant factor” in whether the bridge closes next month, Straessle said.
Pulaski County committed $20 million to the project to incorporate two basket-handle arches into the design instead of just one, as the state Highway and Transportation Department had proposed.
Closing the bridge in late September will involve working through the heart of winter, which is typically a slow period for highway construction because it is often too wet or too cold to work with concrete and other construction material.
Massman won’t have any wiggle room to account for the vagaries of the weather under its contract. Once the bridge closes, the company will have 180 days to re-open the span to traffic.
Massman officials have said they hoped to have it closed for less than six months. The company will be docked $80,000 for each day the crossing is unavailable to traffic past the 180day limit. Conversely, the company stands to gain $80,000 for every day it comes in under that deadline.
“This project is unique,” Straessle said. “Once the bridge is closed, the clock starts ticking.”
Regular construction contracts don’t count the period from November to March as construction days because of the generally cooler and wetter weather. That won’t happen with the Broadway Bridge.
“November is typically the wettest month of the year,” Straessle said. “The cold makes it more challenging. The timing of when to pour concrete, it’s more challenging. Coordinating the workers, the construction and supplies, all of that will be a factor.”
But he said Massman is an experienced heavy bridge builder and is used to working in challenging conditions.
Paul Scharmer, a Massman executive who has discussed the project in the past, didn’t return telephone calls to his office on Friday and Monday. But company officials told Arkansas Business earlier this month their goal was to close the bridge Sept. 15.
When the 93-year-old bridge does come down, it will be a nonevent, according to the demolition company handling the task, Engineered Explosive Services of San Antonio.
Small explosive charges are expected to be used to take down the arches in several large pieces that can be removed from the river’s navigation channel relatively quickly. The bridge deck will be removed without explosives before the company drills into the remaining piers and place charges in them to destroy them.