The Little Rock board of directors on Aug. 5, 2025, authorized using up to $6.5 million in short-term debt to fund the replacement of a bridge protection structure in the Arkansas River.
Known as protection cells, the series of structures are designed to shield nearby bridges from collisions with vessels on the river between downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock.
Officials in Little Rock are seeking to replace a cell on the west side of the Clinton Presidential Park Bridge that was damaged when a barge struck it on Sept. 10, 2021, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Aug. 6.
In September 2023, the city filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking damages over the collision from the vessel's owner and operator, which the complaint noted was towing the barge at the time of the cell strike.
The Little Rock news source added that not replacing the cell could lead to daily fines against the city from the U.S. Coast Guard.
Little Rock City Attorney Tom Carpenter told members of the board of directors in late July that the city had not yet been fined, but the Coast Guard wanted assurance from Little Rock that the project was going to move forward.
The Coast Guard had previously concluded that it would not be good to have additional construction happening on the river while the 30 Crossing project was under way. That effort, which finished in late 2024, reconstructed and upgraded Interstate 30 through both cities and across the river and contributed to the delay in replacing the damaged structure, according to Carpenter.
He added that the new cell also needs to be buried deeper in the ground underwater, an expense that will fall on the city and is unrelated to the litigation over the barge collision.
"We were [going to] end up having to do that anyway as soon as we found out about it," Carpenter said during the Little Rock board's July 29 agenda-setting meeting.
In addition to the ordinance on short-term financing, board members approved a resolution that authorized a contract amendment for an additional $712,441 with Little Rock-based HNTB Corp. for final engineering, design and permitting work related to the new protection cell. The amendment will bring the total maximum contract amount to $762,416.
The Democrat-Gazette noted that board members also were told proceeds from the $6.5 million short-term note are expected to cover the cost of the additional engineering and design work.
Little Rock Board Also OKs New Community Center
At the same meeting, the Little Rock board of directors voted to authorize a nearly $4.4 million contract with Carson & Associates Inc., a local contracting firm, for the construction of a community center at the city's planned micro-home village for the homeless at 3405 W. Roosevelt Rd.
The contract amount with Carson & Associates includes a 10 percent contingency fee.
Plans call for 80 units of transitional housing at the micro-home village adjacent to the community center. The latter will be able to serve as an emergency shelter for up to 32 people and also contain laundry facilities, a dining area and more.
The community center will serve the micro-home village and will not be open to members of the general public, said Kevin Howard, the director of Little Rock's department of housing and neighborhood programs, in response to a question from City Director Virgil Miller Jr.
In addition, the city board approved spending almost $222,700 more with Redstone Construction Group, another Little Rock company, for site work at the location of the micro-home village on top of the approximately $1.1 million that was authorized last March.
The additional work is expected to include the installation of 2,000 linear ft. of sewer lines, curb changes and a modified driveway.
However, the Democrat-Gazette learned that progress toward completion of the micro-home village has been slow and the anticipated cost has increased.
While addressing the board, Howard confirmed to City Director Kathy Webb that the total budget for building the micro-home village has risen from $5 million to $7 million.
The target window for completion of both the village and the community center is February to May 2026, according to a timeline shown to board members. The change order request by Redstone, though, is expected to cause little or no delay to the construction schedule, according to Howard.
The two resolutions related to the micro-home village were approved as part of the board's consent agenda.
