Faux Bricks Etched Into Garland Crosswalks

Workers with Hutchens Construction of Cassville, Mo., were busy in mid-March etching fake bricks into the asphalt of six crosswalks along Fayetteville’s Garland Avenue — three crosswalks each at the intersections of Garland and Maple and Cleveland streets.

The crosswalks are part of the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department’s $1.9 million project to widen six-tenths of a mile of Garland to four lanes between Maple and North streets. Garland Avenue is also designated as part of Arkansas Highway 112. State and federal highway funds are paying for the project and crosswalks.

This is the first time the AHTD has used faux bricks in Arkansas, said Joe Shipman, the highway department’s district construction engineer in Fort Smith.

“It’s aesthetically pleasing, but it also highlights the crosswalks more for safety precautions,” Shipman said, noting that the crosswalks are adjacent to the University of Arkansas campus, Leverett Elementary School and a residential area.

The widening contract was let to Mobley Contractors Inc. of Morrilton on May 22, 2002. The work is scheduled to be completed this spring.

Ron Mobley, area manager for Mobley Contractors, said the company hired Hutchens as a subcontractor to do the crosswalks, which will resemble the real-brick crosswalks recently installed at several intersections along Dickson Street.

“That area is something new that the highway department is trying,” Mobley said. “It’s a raised intersection [at Cleveland Street]. The crosswalk is a reminder that this is a pedestrian area.”

Shipman said etching and painting the six crosswalks will cost $29,403 for 34,043 SF ($8.54 per SF). Laying brick crosswalks would require a concrete foundation that would increase the cost by 20 to 30 percent, Mobley said.

Shipman said the trademarked name for the textured asphalt imprinting is SmartBond Surfacing Systems. It was “formulated” by Integrating Paving Concepts Inc. of Surrey, British Columbia, he said. The process was invented in Canada in 1990 as a low-cost alternative to real bricks.

The UA is paying for landscaping in the median of Garland Avenue between Cleveland and Maple streets.

Mike Sutton, project manager at the site for Hutchens, said the bricks will receive six coats of brick-colored paint, which should last two or three years.

In addition to the work along Garland, workers in mid-March were also repainting the Razorback hog at the intersection of Arkansas Avenue and Dickson Street in Fayetteville.

Bootsie Ackerman, former head of the city’s Downtown Dickson Enhancement Project, said the organization was rushed to finish the Razorback in time for the Bikes, Blues & BBQ festival last spring, so the paint hadn’t dried completely before motorcycles began to rumble over it during the event.

The Dickson Street sidewalk and lighting project, which was completed earlier this year, cost $3.23 million. Of that amount, $1.5 million came from a federal grant, $30,000 from the Razorback Foundation (for the hog logo in the street), $20,000 from an Urban and Community Forestry Assistance Program grant and the rest from the city.

“Only 20 percent of that total cost appears above ground,” said Ackerman, referring to the infrastructure work that was required to install the sidewalks and lighting.

The city’s master plan calls for extending the sidewalk and lighting project down Block Avenue to the downtown Fayetteville square.