Some Little Rock photos

[Tom958]

Some photos of Little Rock from when I was there last week. Little Rock has respectable but not very photogenic freeway system, and some of the photos I took didn't turn out well, but I've uploaded a few anyway, so I might as well share them here. This is crossbodged from two posts I made at www.skyscrapercity.com .

All of the freeways I drove on there had six lanes, which means that Little Rock wins the prize for having the freeway system that would be easiest to recreate accurately in SimCity 4. :lol:

This one is on I-30 headed southward from downtown, approaching the interchange with I-630. The signage is extremely economical. The bridges over I-30 have been replaced relatively recently, presumably as a part of the I-630 interchange project:



A bit further south, approaching the interchange of I-30, I-530 and I-440. This interchange is interesting because it was mostly grafted onto the existing three-way directional interchange and thus has several left-hand entrances and exits. This sign is nominally a mess, with two down arrows over one lane and no indication of a lane drop on the left, but I could figure out what it was trying to tell me easily enough (my motel was east of here, off of I-440 at the airport). Current practice would be to put an arrow-per-lane sign here, but I'm not sure it'd be that much more comprehensible:


A bit further south. I guessed right! :banana:  Note the Clearview on the pullthrough sign but not on the others:



Curving off toward I-440 eastbound. Much of this area is wetlands, so most of the added portions of this interchange are on bridges, as are the westernmost several miles of I-440 and its first two service interchanges. This shot is pretty dramatic, or so I think.

Apparently the bridge piers were initially painted a weird orangey-brown color, like something Tennessee would do. Decades later, the paint has faded or washed away very unevenly, so the piers look blotchy, as though the color is actually from rusty water seeping off of the weathering steel. It looks really bad.



Headed back north on I-30, here's the offramp to AR 10/Cantrell Road, which IMO is the most interesting highway in Little Rock. This section is part of the approaches to the bridge over the Arkansas River. This area is pretty old, as you can see from the guardrail design. The guardrail on the ramp ahead was the same as the one to the right until an errant vehicle smashed off the metal part. :ohno: It's pretty rare to have a full-height concrete parapet in front of a full-height metal guardrail. I wonder if the parapet was original or was added later. It somewhat resembles the type of barrier that the UK has introduced recently.

Arkansas is very conservative in designing its offramp terminals; this is an older highway, but the newer ones are similar in that the offramp appears to be built as a single twelve foot wide lane rather than having a taper of a certain size followed by the ramp itself (here's a Google Streetview link that shows it better, since I didn't get a photo). That and the parallel-type entrance ramps took a little getting used to for me.



To me, Cantrell Road, AR 10, is the most interesting highway in Little Rock. Starting west of town, it enters Little Rock from the mountainous west, becomes a four-lane arterial, snakes down a mountainside, becomes a waterfront expressway downtown, then S-curves across the downtown street grid to tie directly into I-30. So of course I start my narrative at the east end...

Here's a Google Maps link of the downtown segment, since I'm too lazy to upload a map. The segment I'm referring to is labeled La Harpe Boulevard on the map, but the BGS' call it Cantrell Road.

Entering Cantrell from I-30, passing under the viaduct we were on in the previous photo. Note the steel piers:



At the intersection with Markham Street. Note the sharp curve. This intersection also serves as the primary access point between the lovely waterfront park and the reasonably vibrant tourist district, so low traffic speeds are very desirable here. The Clinton Library is about a half mile to the east on Markham, and the trolley runs there via Markham.



Further west, the road runs under bridges and the city's convention center. Reflex action is to call for an "urban boulevard" here so as to "reconnect downtown with the neglected waterfront," but I think that'd be overkill here; the waterfront is far from neglected, and the topography isn't well suited to providing another walkable connection, even if the convention center wasn't in the way. This one is westbound, about to pass under the Main Street Bridge:


Eastbound, passing under the convention center:



From my own limited travels there, congestion appears to be rare in Little Rock except for leaving downtown headed northward at the afternoon peak. I happened to be headed that way once, and the bridges over the Arkansas were jammed, with I-30 being sluggish. Returning, I meant to head southbound over the Broadway Bridge (I guess that's what it's called-- Google just labels it US 70B!) because there are right-turn ramps connecting it to Cantrell in the southbound-to-westbound direction I was heading in. Unfortunately, though, we ended up on the Main Street Bridge instead, and we had to return to Cantrell via congested and confusing surface streets. The positive aspect of that is that there's little if any congestion on Cantrell itself, even during rush hour since the downtown streets aren't capable of delivering enough traffic to Cantrell to cause a problem.

OT: I'd expected to drive to Little Rock, but my boss insisted that I fly (I suspect that was so I couldn't escape except by buying my own plane ticket or hitchhiking!). Direct flights from ATL to Little Rock are horrendously expensive, so my flight involved a change of planes at Charlotte's sprawling, smoke-free airport (!). So, that's five or more hours' flying time, two hours to get through ATL airport security, another hour to get from my house to the airport, against a nine hour drive and having to rent a Nissan Altima instead of having a proper construction vehicle to drive. All in all, I would rather have driven my work van.  And, the flight itself was pretty brutal, but there was this. I'm amazed that they didn't charge extra for this seat:

[formulanone]

Little Rock's last minute flights can be horrendously expensive. Back when Memphis was a hub for Delta, you could fly/drive at a third of the cost. If that's not enough, the rental car fees out of LIT and XNA are a whopping 21 and 22 percent. Still less expensive for a comparable rental out of Boston, Newark, Los Angeles, or New York, but one really should read the fine print before renting an airport car in AR.

Seems most service to Little Rock isn't quite by mainline carriers, so the regionals seem to pack you in. Like Huntsville, they're probably quite profitable routes...

Did they finish the riverside pavilion areas by I-30? And for that matter, is the terminal still under construction? I'm headed out that way next month, for the first time in two years.

[formulanone]

(Tapatalk wouldn't let me edit the post.)

[Tom958]

Did they finish the riverside pavilion areas by I-30? And for that matter, is the terminal still under construction? I'm headed out that way next month, for the first time in two years.

I hung in and near the park after arriving on Sunday afternoon, and I didn't see any construction there or at the airport, so I guess they're finished.

This was actually my second trip to Little Rock-- another guy and I had gone there a week earlier for one day's work. That time we stayed near I-430 at I-630. The interchange was pretty impressive, but I didn't bother with photos because we only saw it at night.

EDIT: Nice pics!

[bugo]

From my own limited travels there, congestion appears to be rare in Little Rock except for leaving downtown headed northward at the afternoon peak

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Head west on 630 during rush hour sometime and you'll see how wrong you are.

[bugo]

I'm surprised that US 65 and 167 are signed along with I-530 on I-30.

[bugo]

I'm surprised that US 65 and 167 are signed along with I-530 on I-30.

The little AR 10 freeway spur is pretty cool, I must agree.  The helix ramp is neat.

The Main Street bridge is secret unsigned AR 5.
What is labeled as US 70B was once US 67-70 (and 65-167 on Broadway), then was 70B, and has reverted to US 70 without US 67.

[Tom958]

Head west on 630 during rush hour sometime and you'll see how wrong you are.

Well, yeah. The 430/630 interchange project is reasonably attractive in appearance, but I doubt that it's being built as decoration. 

I'm surprised that US 65 and 167 are signed along with I-530 on I-30.

I'm not. Both US 65 and US 167 are fairly major routes on either side of Little Rock, and it's good to have some signs that indicate that that part of I-30 actually runs north-south. Despite that, though, on my first visit I was riding and navigating, and the driver had a hard time comprehending that I-30 "east" was actually headed north.

If I were king, I'd route I-30 onto I-440, route I-530 over what's now the north-south portion of I-30, and think of another number for AR 440. Or maybe route US 167 there. 

[bugo]

Why would you want I-30 to not go through downtown Little Rock?  Most 2 digit interstates travel near the city centers.  I-44 in Tulsa is a rare exception, when I-244 passes near downtown while I-44 originally was a bypass.  The reason this happened is because Skelly Drive was built a long time before I-244 was completed.

[Tom958]

Why would you want I-30 to not go through downtown Little Rock?  Most 2 digit interstates travel near the city centers.  I-44 in Tulsa is a rare exception, when I-244 passes near downtown while I-44 originally was a bypass.  The reason this happened is because Skelly Drive was built a long time before I-244 was completed.

Because:

1. The downtown Little Rock segment of I-30 is signed as east-west when it actually runs unambiguously north-south, which is confusing (the king gets to decide what's confusing!).

2. Even with a signed concurrent US route, signage would be simpler and more understandable with only one cardinal direction displayed instead of two.

3. Through traffic would do better to use I-440 anyway.

4. The control city for I-30 north (or east!  ) of downtown is "North Little Rock," which would make more sense for a 3DI than for a 2DI.

5. Most 2DI's actually take the shortest route, whether or not it goes through the city center. I-75 in Macon is an exception; I-44 in Tulsa isn't.

[hbelkins]

3. Through traffic would do better to use I-440 anyway.

In this day and age of GPS and Google Maps routing, through traffic is going to take the recommended routing no matter what number is on it. On my one trip to Texarkana and Dallas, the only reason I drove I-40 west to I-30 west was to secure a clinch of I-30. Otherwise, I would have taken I-440 -- which I did do on the return trip, because I wanted a clinch of it too and I was going to take AR 440 north to US 167.

Can't remember if there is a "To I-30 West/Texarkana" sign on I-40 west approaching 440 or not, but there should be.

[Road Hog]

3. Through traffic would do better to use I-440 anyway.

In this day and age of GPS and Google Maps routing, through traffic is going to take the recommended routing no matter what number is on it. On my one trip to Texarkana and Dallas, the only reason I drove I-40 west to I-30 west was to secure a clinch of I-30. Otherwise, I would have taken I-440 -- which I did do on the return trip, because I wanted a clinch of it too and I was going to take AR 440 north to US 167.

Can't remember if there is a "To I-30 West/Texarkana" sign on I-40 west approaching 440 or not, but there should be.

If you avoid rush hour, I-40 to I-30 through Little Rock is a quick zip-through, not bad at all, as long as you get in the correct lane to merge. I-440 adds a few miles if you're coming from the north.