Solving a Catch-22 (Editorial)

Count us among those uninspired by the state Highway Department’s three designs to replace Little Rock’s old, but still elegant, Broadway Bridge.

Although the department now estimates a new bridge will cost $58 million, compared with the $45 million forecast four years ago, that extra $13 million isn’t buying beauty; it’s for an extra vehicle lane and a bicycle-pedestrian lane.

North Little Rock Mayor Patrick Hays voiced a sentiment shared by some significant others: Hold off on a new Broadway Bridge and build a new, efficient bridge upriver, the so-called Chester Street option.

Here’s the reasoning: 1) Closing the bridge for the almost two years necessary to build a replacement means a traffic nightmare and financial losses tied to that nightmare. 2) Transportation planners say another Arkansas River crossing in the downtown area is needed anyway. 3) The $58 million that the Highway Department is willing to spend on a new Broadway Bridge isn’t sufficient to build the striking "iconic" new Broadway Bridge, which so many have championed, and, given time, civic boosters might find a source of financial support to build that icon.

As Jim McKenzie, executive director of central Arkansas’ Metroplan, told us a while back, a 2003 study recommended first building a midtown bridge between Pike Avenue and Cantrell Road and extending it to I-630 (the Chester Street plan), then widening the I-30 Bridge and only then replacing the Broadway Bridge.

The problem is that the Highway Department’s money is really federal bridge replacement money. Broadway is also U.S. 70B, a federal highway, a federal bridge. Chester Street isn’t. And agency officials fear losing the funds if they don’t use them.

Surely, someone among Arkansas’ congressional delegation can solve this Catch-22, whereby federal rules prevent the wisest use of federal funds. We hear Sen. Mark Pryor recently had a little success in the Catch-22 arena regarding FEMA.