Memorize this for your future Arkansasbridge-bragging purposes: When the Junction Bridge reopens between Little Rock and North Little Rock on Saturday, it will be The Nation’s Only Pedestrian Bridge — With a Lift Span.
Not the nation’s longest bridge specifically constructed as a pedestrian and bicycle bridge: That’s the 4, 226-foot Big Dam Bridge seven miles upstream at Murray Lock and Dam.
And are there other pedestrian bridges in the nation ? Yes. (The 5, 253-foot Old Chain of Rocks Bridge in St. Louis, for example, and that former highway span is longer than the Big Dam Bridge. )
But are those other bridges in Arkansas ? No.
Focus, people. Brag accurately.
When the Junction Bridge admits pedestrians and bicycle riders at 10 a.m. Saturday, they will find plenty to brag about while milling about for the official ribbon-tying at 10: 30. Recycled from a rusting hulk, the new footbridge offers a 17-footwide concrete avenue with a $ 5. 8 million view of the surging Arkansas River and resurgent downtowns north and south.
For civic symbolism, before gleeful pedestrians are allowed to scurry from shore to shore, squads of children from each city are to draw two 900-foot ribbons, one from either bank, toward the middle of the bridge. There Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines, Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola and North Little Rock Mayor Pat Hays will be waiting. Also expected are former Little Rock Mayor Jim Dailey and representatives from the state legislative delegations, the U. S. Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers, May Construction Co., McClelland Engineers and the federal and state highway departments.
“The mayors will take the ends and hand them to the judge, and he will tie them in a bow,” Billie Ann Myers explained.
Myers is chairman of the Pulaski County Bridge Facilities Board, which is responsible for the construction project.
What if the ribbons are too short ? “We’ll ask everyone to scoot in,” she joked.
But really they have 2, 100 feet of ribbon.
TRUSSED AND LIFTED Visitors who enter on the Little Rock side using Riverfront Park’s handicap-accessible walkway will immediately confront the bridge’s claim to pedestrianbridge fame: its lift span. Once upon a time, the multitalented Junction Bridge carried trains straight across the Arkansas River, but it also had the lift span, a 360-foot section that could rise 32 feet above the level line of tracks to allow big ships to slide along the Arkansas without decapitating their captains. But a lift span is a moving part, and in this sad world all moving parts sooner or later stop moving. By 1985, trains no longer crossed what rapidly became a 1, 800-foot, Warren-truss derelict. Green grass rooted in its rotting ties; a yellow-eyed raccoon took up residence in its superstructure; graffiti faded gently from its riveted steel beams. Citizens confused it with the Rock Island Bridge, which crosses the river farther to the east and lands at the Clinton Presidential Center. Or, when they did remember the Junction Bridge, they remembered that part of the famous Little Rock — La Petite Roche — was blasted away by construction workers in 1884. Union Pacific ceded the defunct bridge to Little Rock in 1999. Through what is called an inter-local agreement, the county bridge facilities board has leased it for 99 years for use as a pedestrian-and-bicycle bridge.
CLIMB OR RIDE Today the 2 million-pound lift span is pinned permanently 38 feet above the main span — six feet above its old “up” position, so elevator openings and stairs would line up. Support columns, cables as fat as your arm and 500 tons worth of counterweights hold it in place.
To cross the river, you have to get up there and then come down again. On each end of the lift span, you have your choice of taking a staircase or a 6-by-9-foot, glass-walled elevator.
The elevators will take “seconds,” said Dean Halijan, senior project manager for May Construction. But he didn’t prove their speed for a group of photoop models May 6 because powering up either of the bridge’s two elevators would have started the clock ticking on warranties.
Those photo models can attest that it is a nice bit of exercise to carry a bicycle up the stairs — the set closest to North Little Rock has four landings and 50 or 56 steps, depending on how you count them.
Meanwhile, two bicycles fit comfortably inside an elevator (three will fit in uncomfortably ).
Myers said the elevators will operate on timers from 6 a.m. to midnight. Should electricity on the bridge fail, backup batteries will return each to the lowest level and open its door.
North Little Rock police will monitor the elevators’ security cameras. But if someone called 911 from the bridge, whichever city’s police department received the call would respond first. The bridge, being a public thoroughfare, will remain open all night. Light poles with downward-directed lights will illuminate every 50 feet, and the girders are “uplighted,” Halijan said. The girder lights do not change colors like those on the Big Dam Bridge; they’re white. “But they’re beautiful at night,” Myers said. “The funny thing is if you came out here and there was not a light on this bridge, it’s still like daylight out here” because of the cities on shore.
RAMPING UP The bridge will be open for Riverfest, May 23-25. But soon after, it will close again for finishing construction. For instance, a staircase will rise from the North Little Rock riverfront. In the meantime, visitors entering on that shore will use a 300-foot concrete ramp that branches off a sidewalk on Washington Street, next to the Enclave building. Anyone who uses wheels to get around will immediately notice that this ramp begins with a 12 percent grade. That’s a hill. For wheelchairs (and skaters and cyclists without vertical stamina ), sidewalk switchbacks with a 4. 9 percent grade are available just west of the ramp. Beyond those switchbacks, the ramp relaxes to a 4. 9 percent grade. That’s about as steep as the ramps on the Big Dam Bridge, and it meets requirements of the Americans With Disabilities Act. Beyond the ramp (and a narrow band of pigeon poo that between maintenance visits will no doubt mark the beginning of the truss ), the bridge widens to 17 feet and levels out between blue metal handrails. “Everything we’ve added is painted blue,” Myers noted. The blue paint, laid in three layers, is Tnemec brand (“ cement” spelled backward ). The blue railings are 52 inches tall, which photo model Jim Britt, president of the Arkansas Bicycle Club, said “feels taller” to him than do the railings on the Big Dam Bridge. “You don’t feel like you’re going to flip over,” he said. His club will lead a group ride to witness the grand opening, with cyclists gathering at 9 a.m. Saturday in North Little Rock’s Cook’s Landing Park. Anyone is welcome to ride with them; helmets are required.
STAY RIGHT ? Britt said he thinks it would be wiser “with all the people around” to walk bicycles across the lift span between the elevator towers. Which raises the question of traffic rules. On the Big Dam Bridge and the Arkansas River Trail, signs direct all users to stay to the right unless they’re passing. The bridge even has a stripe to remind trail hogs not to stray too far to the left.
What about the Junction Bridge ?
“We have really decided to wait and see what will happen,” Myers said, “because we don’t know how many people will be using this at the same time. It’s not a racing bridge like the Big Dam.” She sees visiting the Junction Bridge as “a more leisurely activity,” maybe with eating. “We want people to bring their lunch out here or bring their breakfast,” she said.
Hence the benches and trash receptacles.
On the other hand, she noted, fitness walkers or runners could get in a 1 1 / 3-mile workout by crossing the river four times.
“But my vision is you get tired of being in the office, you get your computer, you get your apple and your water. You come out here and sit on one of these wonderful benches and work or read or watch the barge that comes up the river,” she said.
Or study the tea-colored water sliding along 60 or 70 feet below, or track the bright berry of the River Rail trolley edging the Main Street Bridge, or narrow your eyes at the birds perched over your head, or peer higher among the superstructure to see if there’s still a raccoon up there.
Some of the fading graffiti remain, but that, too, has been recycled, from eyesore to artful ambience. This bridge has a history, and it shows: Once it was down, but it has been lifted up.
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