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North Little Rock council authorizes application for Main Street Viaduct planning grant
Summary
The council voted to authorize the mayor to apply for a federal planning grant to fund environmental, geotechnical and engineering work to make the Main Street Viaduct shovel-ready; staff said the total project is currently estimated at about $50 million and the planning grant request is for up to $2.25 million.
The North Little Rock City Council voted to authorize the mayor to apply for federal grant funds to cover planning, environmental review and engineering for the Main Street Viaduct.
City Engineer David Cook told the council the project is still at the conceptual stage and "we haven't done surveys or anything on this yet," describing the application as a planning-phase request to make the bridge shovel-ready for later construction. Cook gave a current total cost estimate "right now, total, we're looking at $50,000,000," which he said covers survey, planning, environmental review, design and construction observation through completion.
Ryan Wilson of North Little Rock Electric explained the city's approach to risk and funding elsewhere in the meeting, and Amber in finance and the grants manager (Kyle) described the grant strategy: after feedback from prior large-program applications, staff said they are applying first for planning-level funds to improve competitiveness for larger construction grants. Staff told the council the application asks for planning and design funds (the planning-phase request in the discussion was cited as $2,250,000) and that the city budget set aside $600,000 in 2026 to begin environmental and preliminary work whether or not the grant award arrives.
Council members pressed for details. One council member noted inconsistencies in the application about average daily traffic (the application lists 15,000 vehicles per day in the current draft while a prior submission listed more than 19,000) and asked staff to confirm the most recent counts; Cook said the 2024 numbers are the most recent and promised to verify the data. Cook also told the council the project design percent is effectively 0% because no surveys or preliminary design have yet been completed. On schedule, staff said design work could start in October 2026 with design running roughly 16'18 months once surveys and NEPA review are complete.
Several council members questioned the city's capacity to prepare a competitive application on short notice, noting multiple grants-manager turnovers in recent years and asking whether a dedicated consultant or project manager should be hired. Staff replied that the current grants manager has been working on the submission and that, if the resolution passed, the grants account was ready to upload the application following the signed resolution.
With the application reportedly due the next day, the council moved to adopt the resolution authorizing the city to apply and to authorize the mayor to execute any related grant documents. The motion passed on recorded assent from council members present.
The resolution (R2640) authorizes application for planning, environmental and engineering funds to advance the Main Street Viaduct project to final design and construction readiness. Staff said they will provide follow-up materials requested by council, including verified traffic counts, a more detailed schedule, and confirmation of restricted match funds.
