Recent flooding of the Little River hampered work on the state Highway 41 bridge near the border of Little River and Sevier counties but not enough to derail the work.
"Rain from the last couple of days caused the river to come up, but not out of the banks. The rains slowed the work down, but it's not too bad," said Steve Frisbee, District 3 engineer for the Arkansas Highway Department. "The project is about 29 percent complete."
The $15 million project is scheduled to be finished by late 2018.
The new bridge will be 2 feet longer than the existing bridge, which was built in 1961. It will be 40 feet wider, with two 12-foot lanes and 8-foot shoulders.
The original bridge is about half a mile long and links Sevier County on the north side to Little River County on the south side. About 2,200 vehicles traverse it daily, according to 2013 county data.