The most expensive section of the Delta Heritage Trail so far is under contract with work poised to begin in Desha County.
Much of the $11.7 million project entails transforming the function of the 0.72-mile Yancopin Bridge over the Arkansas River from carrying rail traffic to accommodating hikers and bikers.
“We’re going to issue the notice to proceed on Feb. 26,” said Jordan Thomas, design services manager for planning and development at Arkansas State Parks. “That will serve as notice that the clock is ticking on the 480-day contract.”
State Parks officials were happy to see the bid come in under the projected $12 million to $13 million, and, with favorable weather, they believe Pioneer Civil Construction of Crossett could complete the 1.9-mile section of trail by year’s end.
The new phase of the rails-to-trails development will extend the southern section beyond its 27.6-mile course from Arkansas City to Yancopin. This completed portion of the trail includes 14.4 miles of shared-use roadway on the Missis-sippi River Mainline Levee.
Arkansas State Parks expects to award a contract by summer for the final 13.4 miles of trail between Snow Lake and the Yancopin Bridge. This work will encompass another big ticket item: retrofitting the Benzal Bridge over the White River for recreation.
In addition to work on the 0.95-mile bridge, 9 miles of trail await development from Snow Lake to the Benzal Bridge along with 3.4 miles between the Arkansas and White rivers.
“We’re essentially ready to go with construction documents on those three sections,” said Jeff King, deputy director of Arkansas State Parks. “Now we’re waiting on an executive grant agreement to bid out the work.”
The bit of red tape is tied to a $20.8 million federal grant made in November 2021 by the Rebuilding American Infrastructure With Sustainability & Equity (RAISE) program. State Parks landed that funding with the fiscal muscle of a $20 million matching grant from the Walton Family Foundation of Bentonville.
The combined public and private grants were key to accelerating the pace of progress and pushing the completion of the largest investment in an Arkansas park toward the finish line in 2025.
The two river bridges will provide links to traverse the 10,268-acre Trusten Holder State Wildlife Management Area and a big swath of huge bottomland forest, the 160,756-acre Dale Bumpers White River National Wildlife Refuge.
In addition to the Arkansas and White River bridges, future work will retrofit a 400-foot trestle spanning Hole in the Wall Lake north of the White River.
The investment in the Delta Heritage Trail so far totals about $41 million represented by awarded and completed contracts to date. The final figure is expected to top $83 million.
New Additions
The latest portion of the trail to open is the 9-mile section between the Phillips County communities of Elaine and Mellwood.
Work on this $3 million project reached substantial completion on Dec. 10. One of the odd items that was left undone last year was the installation of a water fountain.
“We couldn’t get a water fountain,” Thomas said. “There are random things in construction that you don’t expect to have to wait for.”
The addition of this section creates an uninterrupted 29.5-mile recreational path from the Lexa trailhead to the Mellwood community.
Work is winding down on a $4.6 million contract that will extend the trail 12.1 miles farther south from Mellwood to the Snow Lake community. “Right now, we’re hoping to have it open by May,” Thomas said.
The Mellwood-Snow Lake section was set to open in March, but an accidental fire on a trestle bridge caused a two-month delay.
“From what I heard, workers were using a cutting torch to deal with some hard-to-remove metal pieces,” Thomas said. “That involved some pretty high heat, which caused some melted slag to drip down on the wooden trestle and smolder. It eventually caught fire overnight.”
The damage was substantial, requiring a replacement bridge and new foundation to accommodate the new span. A dozen pilings were driven nearly 40 feet into the ground on Feb. 8 to provide a firm base for the new construction.
“The concrete work needs to cure for 28 days, and we’re having a bridge fabricated that will come in two pieces,” Thomas said.
The trail on either side of the gap will be open for use in the weeks preceding installation of the new bridge.
At the Arkansas City trailhead, a statue honoring influential African American magazine publisher John H. Johnson (1918-2005) was unveiled on Nov. 1.
Johnson first published Jet magazine on that date in 1951, six years after he started Ebony in 1945. Johnson was born in Arkansas City, and his family moved to Chicago in 1932.
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