Little Rock — Costs Rise

Rail Transit Online, May 2002

Continued delays in starting construction, along with higher design and engineering costs, have contributed to a nearly $2.5 million increase in the price tag of the 2.2-mile (3.5 km) River Rail streetcar project.  “The longer it takes, the more expensive it will be,” Keith Jones, executive director of the Central Arkansas Transit Authority (CATA), told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.  The anticipated outlay for the project, which will link the downtowns of Little Rock and North Little Rock, now stands at $18.35 million, up from $12.3 million in January of last year.  Part of the jump has been attributed to higher costs for utility relocation and the trolley barn.  Jones said the new figure is unofficial and at the upper end of consultant estimates.  He said there is enough money on hand or promised from local and federal sources to pay for the line, which transportation planners see as the first step in a future regional LRT system.  However, federal funds won’t be released and construction contracts awarded until CATA and the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department complete negotiations for trolleys to use the Main Street Bridge over the Arkansas River (see RTOL, Apr. 2002).  A draft proposal has been hammered out but a final agreement has been elusive, reportedly because of demands made by the Highway Department.  CATA attorney Hal Kemp claims the department is demanding contract language that would give it control over construction and operation on the bridge, even approval of routine maintenance, that could make it legally impossible to operate trolleys on the structure.  A Highway Department spokesman denied the charge and insisted the agency is making a good-faith effort to work out the problems.  Revenue service is now slated for early 2004.  Already being planned is a 0.8-mile (1.3 km) second phase costing $7.5 million to the proposed Bill Clinton presidential library in Little Rock.