Arkansas River Trail @North Cantrell Road

The Arkansas River Trail is Little Rock's premier shared-use trail for recreation and transportation.  It is advertised as an all-ages-and-abilities 15.6-mile trail loop, but it does not function in that way.  Recreational riders tend to ride on the North Little Rock side of the loop, uncomfortable with several points on the Little Rock side.

North Cantrell Road is not the most dangerous section of the trail on the Little Rock side, but it does not meet an all-ages-and-abilities expectation.  North Cantrell Road has no sidewalks or bicycle facilities; trail users must simply walk and ride in the street (Fig. 1).

Figure 1.  There's nowhere to go but in the street for Arkansas River Trail users at North Cantrell Road.

The proximity of the tracks to the street make it unsafe to create an off-street trail facility to the south of the street.  The street's width makes it impossible to create an on-street facility without making the street one-way to vehicular traffic.  While not ideal, the optimal solution here is to create a sidepath on the south side of the street (Fig. 2).  The slope of this greenspace would likely require a retaining wall on the east side of the greenspace.

Figure 2.  Proposed alignment of the Arkansas River Trail north of N. Cantrell Road.