Project Description

Little Rock voters passed a 3/8 cent sales tax in 2011 to fund street and drainage improvements for the City. It was anticipated that the tax would generate $72 million in capital funding over a 10-year period. Little Rock’s Public Works Department solicited project requests from across the City to equitably distribute the benefit from the tax to all of its citizens. This project was one of the improvements selected for implementation in Ward 2. The intersection of 8th and Brown Street is a low point that is bounded to the east, west, and south by positive grade and to the north by Interstate 630. The drainage infrastructure at this intersection had proven to be inadequate during large rainfall events, which resulted in frequent incidents of localized flooding. The flooding not only rendered the intersection unsafe, it also threatened nearby residences. Little Rock Public Works entrusted Hawkins-Weir Engineers to identify and design the improvements necessary to overcome this problem. Our firm employed state-of-the-art computerized hydraulic modeling to determine that the installation of approximately 450 feet of drainage structures ranging in size from 18-inch reinforced concrete pipe to 5 feet by 3 feet reinforced concrete culvert would be necessary to direct the stormwater north under Interstate 630. The budget for this project was $500,000. The detailed hydraulic modeling performed by Hawkins-Weir provided a more efficient and lower cost design than originally anticipated. The low bid received in August 2014 was more than 50% below budget at approximately $240,000. The City used the savings on this project to make other badly needed improvements to it streets.