Editor’s note: This is the third story in a series addressing identified Fort Smith water system replacement and repair needs with cost estimates that approach $600 million. Link here for the first story, and link here for the second story.
Water slide funding has captured the ire and energy of some city residents, but a quiet vote Tuesday (March 17) by the Fort Smith Board of Directors to fund critical water system needs is a small first step toward addressing decades of deferred work.
The Fort Smith Board of Directors on Tuesday voted unanimously to proceed with an estimated $5.2 million plan to fix what city engineers say are a few priority issues on a longer priority list of what could be $600 million in overall water infrastructure updates and expansions.
The 2026 “Prioritized Capital Improvement Plan for Water” includes $2 million for rehabilitation of a 20-inch water distribution line that crosses Interstate 540 near Euper Lane in Fort Smith, and $1 million to fix a large leak on the 30-inch water transmission line that crosses into Fort Smith and is attached to the U.S. 64 Midland Bridge.
The plan also includes $2 million for water line improvements on Race Track Road in southwest Fort Smith, and $250,000 to build water transmission line encasements associated with the ongoing work to build Interstate 49 between Alma and Barling. All of the projects will return to the board for approval before contracts are awarded.
It’s the Euper Lane and Midland Bridge transmission line that worries Todd Mittge, director of engineering with the city of Fort Smith, Lance McAvoy, the city’s director of utilities, and Jimmie Johnson, deputy director of engineering. For months, if not years, they have warned the board that the city’s water system, which provides water to around 160,000 people in the city and region, that the system operates in “crisis mode” and is just one hiccup away from a major system failure.
EUPER LANE LINE
The Euper Lane 20-inch water distribution line, installed around 1967, is one of several “weak points” in the city’s water system, according to the three engineers. Johnson said all the other 20-inch distribution lines installed to cross I-540 have failed. An 8-inch steel line also at the Euper location failed and was replaced in 2009, according to the city.
Johnson said in late February that the Euper line needs to be replaced “sooner rather than later” because it’s a matter of when it will fail, not if it will fail. It was his top response when asked what water line work needs immediate attention. The line is critical, McAvoy said, because it is a principal provider of water to much of east Fort Smith, including the Mercy Fort Smith hospital campus.
“If that (Euper pipe) goes, the entire east side of town is out of water,” McAvoy said in a Feb. 26 interview.
Johnson said there is “some redundancy” that could be used as a “quick patch,” but it would likely result in short-term but significant conservation measures, and it could cause water shortages and pressure issues in other parts of the city.
The “patch” would be similar to that Johnson and others pulled together in August 2025 after the rupture of a 24-inch main water line at Leigh Avenue between the Interstate 540 interchange and Phoenix Avenue. That line was installed in 1962, and age was cited as “a big factor” for its failure, according to the city.
Part of that patch was to “interconnect” lines by using pipes, fittings and other materials the utilities department had on hand. But patchwork is not a permanent fix, and not all system failures will lend themselves to “in-house” solutions, Johnson said.
“Luckily, we’ve been able to pull off some miracles,” McAvoy said, adding later that they are just one “catastrophe” away from not being able to find a miracle solution.
Acting City Administrator Jeff Dingman said the Euper Lane line is a top priority but is one of several pieces of aging infrastructure that threatens system viability in that part of the city.
“There are multiple places where it could fail and cause us a problem in the south or southeast parts of town,” Dingman said.
MIDLAND BRIDGE LINE
The other critical issue, according to the engineers, is fixing the leak on the primary water transmission line that brings water to the city from Lake Fort Smith and the Lee Creek Reservoir. McAvoy said repairing the line has “been in planning for five years.”
A 27-inch transmission line and a 48-inch line deliver water to the Midland Bridge area. At that point, two lines cross into Fort Smith, with one under the river that was built in the 1950s, and the other, built in 1967, attached to the bridge. It’s the 30-inch line attached to the bridge that has the major leak.
“We have an ongoing leak that’s leaked for probably at least a decade, maybe longer,” Mittge said. “I visited it earlier this week and it’s a constant shower of water coming down under the Midland Bridge kind of near where the concrete plant is. You can stand under there and be drenched in 5 seconds. That’s a continual loss of non-revenue water right there. But that also exposes that we need to upgrade that because that’s the youngest line crossing that we have (across the river).”
The engineers said if one of the two lines were to fail the city could face pressure losses and outages that not even strict water conservation measures could resolve.
The existing 2-inch Race Track Road line was acquired from the James Fork system. Installation records are unavailable, but it was likely installed in the 1970s and cannot provide fire protection due to its size, according to the city.
“The project will replace the existing line with a larger main and create a looped system to improve reliability and provide fire flow protection,” the city said about the estimated $2 million project. “It will also include bores under I-540 and Arkansas Highway 253.”
Editor’s note: Upcoming stories in this series will include details on critical weak points in the water system, water meter replacement, revenue options to fund identified needs, water rates, and wholesale water users.
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