Deal would let state foot bill for streetcars
Arrangement tied to 30 Crossing work
Little Rock will take over responsibility from the state for a section of South University Avenue as part of a bid to help Rock Region Metro rebuild portions of its streetcar system that will be affected by the 30 Crossing project.
The section of South University Avenue running south from Asher Avenue and Colonel Glenn Road to Interstate 30 also is a section of U.S. 70B and its maintenance has been the responsibility of the state Department of Transportation.
Similarly, under the tentative agreement, North Little Rock and Pulaski County will take over responsibility of a section of Arkansas 161 west from Interstate 440.
Little Rock and North Little Rock and Pulaski County are the main funding partners of Rock Region, the transit agency for Pulaski County.
In exchange for the cities and counties taking over the sections of state highways and removing them
from the state system, the department will pay for the work needed to rebuild the streetcar system once the 30 Crossing project is completed, said Keli Wylie, the agency executive overseeing the project.
The agreement still needs the approval of the Little Rock Board of Directors, the North Little Rock City Council, the Pulaski County Quorum Court and the Arkansas Highway Commission, said Charles Frazier, the chief executive officer for Rock Region.
The proposal is the “most efficient way to move forward to deal with this,” he told the transit agency’s board.
The arrangement is similar to other agreements the Transportation Department has reached with utilities with equipment in the agency rights of way.
The program began several years ago when utility relocation expense started delaying highway construction projects, particularly in rural areas.
The department typically allows water associations and other utilities to place their lines in its right of way at no charge. However, in exchange, the utilities are required to shoulder the cost of moving their lines if the department needs the right of way.
The department found rural water associations didn’t have the capital available to move their lines. To help, the department agreed to pay for the relocation costs in exchange for local jurisdictions taking ownership of state highway sections.
The streetcar system, in a sense, is a utility. Rock Region has a similar agreement with the department to use its right of way without cost in exchange for paying for any relocation and other expenses. Like the other utilities, however, it cannot afford those costs.
Under a separate agreement with the Federal Transit Administration, Rock Region cannot shut down the streetcar system. It received several million dollars in administration funding, which requires the agency to run the system for several more years, Frazier said.
The Metro streetcar system has been operating for 18 years. Its first phase opened in 2004. A second phase that took trolley service to the Clinton Presidential Center opened in 2007.
Civic leaders have said the trolleys have helped spurred revitalization in downtown and fostered economic development. They often are featured in materials promoting the area.
Rock Region eliminated fares on the streetcars in 2019, a decision that spurred a tenfold increase in ridership.
But the agency shut down the system earlier this year as nonessential because of the covid-19 pandemic.
It is unclear when the streetcars can resume service.
“We’re not sure yet,” Rock Region spokeswoman Becca Green said in an email. “With the governor’s recent extension of the state pandemic-related emergency declaration through next month and with the current COVID-19 caseload in central Arkansas, I don’t anticipate streetcar service resuming before the end of the year.”
However, 30 Crossing is expected to begin disrupting the system beginning next month, once the agreement is approved by the Arkansas Highway Commission, which likely will happen at its Dec. 9 meeting.
The focus of the initial work, called Phase 1A, will be on East Third Street, which is part of the system that serves the Clinton Presidential Center. Power already has been shut off, nearly 20 catenary poles will be removed and 100 linear feet of track will be removed to perform drainage work, Wylie told the transit agency board. The work is expected to take place between Dec. 10 and Dec. 24.
The catenary poles are part of the overhead electrical system that powers the streetcars.
Phase 1B will involve work on the part of the system that is on a two-block section of East Second Street between Cumberland Street and River Market Avenue. It will take place between March 1 and July 31, Wylie said.
Work by a Rock Region contractor to restore the system won’t begin until 30 Crossing is complete, Wylie added.
Widening the 6.7-mile corridor from Interstate 530 in Little Rock to Interstate 40 in North Little Rock to 10 lanes from six and replacing the bridge over the Arkansas River, among other things, is the largest project the Transportation Department has undertaken.
Central Arkansas planners had long called for an overhaul of the congested corridor, which features the convergence of six major highways in the space of fewer than 7 miles. The I-30 bridge over the Arkansas River, built almost 60 years ago at a cost of $5.5 million, carries 124,000 vehicles daily.
The approved design for the 10-lane alternative features four lanes that would be more like city streets, with ramps to lower speeds, narrower lanes, traffic signals and other features that will, officials say, allow traffic moving on or off I-30 to safely interact with pedestrians and other non-interstate traffic.
The 10-lane alternative has been referred to as a mix of six main through lanes with four collector-distributor lanes. The latter are separated by a wall from the main lanes, have slower speeds and allow traffic traveling between Little Rock and North Little Rock to cross the bridge without entering the main interstate lanes.
The project also includes improvements to the section of I-40 between John F. Kennedy Boulevard and U.S. 67/167 in North Little Rock and a new interchange in Little Rock to replace the one known as the Cantrell Road/I-30 interchange. Removal of the Cantrell/I-30 interchange would create what city officials envision as an 18-acre park.