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Council OKs funds for bridge |
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Thursday, 17 July 2008 |
Project pushed back to October
Bryant City Council, meeting in special session, allocated up to $60,000 to move a main AT&T cable from a bridge on Arkansas 5.
The line needs to be moved to replace culverts at the Arkansas 5 bridge near Larry’s Pizza to help alleviate flooding problems, city officials said.
After years of discussions between residents and city officials over flooding issues in particular areas, the council approved hiring FTN and Associates of Little Rock to conduct a watershed study in January 2007.
FTN is an environmental consulting firm and designed the project to help identify problems. Its goal was to determine what should be done to improve stormwater drainage in certain neighborhoods without harming other areas in the watershed.
The completion of the study determined that the best way to control flooding in those areas is to replace the box culverts on the Arkansas 5 bridge. Bryant Public Work Director Richard Penn has emphasized at several council meetings since 2007 that all the other projects in the plan are impacted by this bridge.
After FTN completed its study, the city hired McClelland Consulting Engineers Inc. of Little Rock to design a plan to replace the culverts. Dan Beranek, McClelland project manager, told the council that the plan must be approved by the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department before construction could be completed and utility lines moved.
Several engineers, including Penn, Beranek and Roger Dodds with FTN, also informed the council that a temporary road needed to be built around the bridge during construction. Council approved $144,500 on May 30 for construction cost of the road.
Penn and Beranek presented a timeline to the council with bridge construction starting in September. However, Beranek said workers found a “major” AT&T cable that serves customers in both Saline and Pulaski counties.
Beranek told the council during a July 10 meeting that the project cost could exceed $104,000 and it could take up to six additional months to move the line.
“This all gets very frustrating,” Bryant Mayor Larry Mitchell said. “We keep saying we are speeding things up and getting on schedule, but every time we think we are getting somewhere we hit a speed bump.”
Beranek said during Tuesday night’s special council meeting that he spoke with AT&T officials about moving the line.
“I am pretty sure I have them down to $60,000 and two or three months ,” Beranek said. “This would put our construction project into October, but we can still go ahead with other projects while we are waiting for the lines to be relocated.”
Beranek said there is no contract for the work and that AT&T will have to receive payment in advance.
Alderman Steve Glenn said the new figure “is better than the previous amount” of $104,000 and made a motion to allocate the funds. The council’s vote was unanimous.
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Razorbacks
