3 entities OK tweaks in plan for I-30 through downtown Little Rock, North Little Rock

Project seen near end of its hurdles

This June 2016 file photo shows an aerial view of the Interstate 30 corridor through downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette file photo)
This June 2016 file photo shows an aerial view of the Interstate 30 corridor through downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette file photo)

The three local jurisdictions involved in the $631.7 million Interstate 30 project through downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock have signed off on an amendment to the region's transportation improvement plan that will satisfy the Arkansas Department of Transportation.

Little Rock, North Little Rock and Pulaski County authorized Metroplan, the long-range transportation planning agency for central Arkansas, to proceed with the amendment to update the work description of what is known as the 30 Crossing project, Tab Townsell, the agency's executive director, said Friday.

The move allows Metroplan to put out the amendment for public comment for a 15-day period beginning Sunday. The Metroplan board of directors would have to approve the amendment at its next meeting Dec. 20 after which, assuming it's approved, the organization will have no official say in how the project is shaped.

"This is setting up the last action," Townsell said. "This is the beginning of the end."

At the same time, Townsell asked the Arkansas Department of Transportation to remove the hold the agency has on $242 million worth of road construction projects for central Arkansas.

The transportation agency's director, Scott Bennett, has insisted that his department couldn't move forward with the projects until the description of the project in the region's transportation improvement program -- which is a list of all the projects scheduled to be awarded contracts -- matched the description in the region's long-range transportation plan known as Imagine Central Arkansas.

Federal regulations don't permit using federal money on road construction projects unless the description in both documents match, according to what Bennett said he was told at a recent meeting involving high-level officials with the Federal Highway Administration.

Metroplan officials said they disagreed with that interpretation but that the state agency was within the law in holding up the projects.

In June, the Metroplan board voted to change the description of work on 30 Crossing in Imagine Central Arkansas to "capacity improvements and reconstruction" from "operational improvements and reconstruction."

In August, Bennett asked the board to make a similar change in the region's transportation improvement plan. Late last month, the director informed Metroplan officials that no federal money could be spent on central Arkansas projects unless the description was changed.

In practice, Bennett's action delayed only one project: The installation of a traffic signal on U.S. 64 at Sunny Gap Road in Faulkner County, at an estimated cost of $200,000. Bids on it were scheduled to be opened earlier this month.

A second project, to improve traction on various highways in the region, is scheduled to be bid on in January.

Both projects can be in the January bid-letting once the board approves the new description, said Danny Straessle, the spokesman for the Transportation Department.

Advertising for the January bid-letting is scheduled to begin on the same day as the Metroplan board meets.

"What we will do is expedite the projects," which will require approval from the Federal Highway Administration, Straessle said.

Barry Haas, a local activist and longtime critic of the project, blasted Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola, North Little Rock Mayor Joe Smith and Pulaski County's County Judge Barry Hyde for signing off on the amendment.

"By what authority do the mayor of Little Rock, the mayor of North Little Rock and the Pulaski County Judge speak on behalf of their jurisdictions and citizens without having their respective legislative bodies -- Little Rock City Board, North Little Rock City Council and Pulaski County Quorum Court -- discuss and possibly approve of such an important action?" Haas said in an email.

"If I was a member of one of those three legislative bodies, I would be outraged that the executive took it upon themselves to act without consultation."

Townsell's announcement came two days after the department said that if 30 Crossing is built, it will be widened to 10 lanes from six.

The agency also was considering widening it to eight lanes, but state transportation officials said their computer traffic modeling showed that the eight-lane alternatives wouldn't eliminate bottlenecks through the 6.7-mile corridor.

Haas said 30 Crossing is much wider than advertised.

"The proposed mega-expansion of I-30 to as wide as 15 total lanes through parts of downtown Little Rock is being sold to the public with a series of half-truths and misinformation," he said.

Though the two remaining alternatives feature 10 lanes, each has different interchanges on the Little Rock side.

One alternative seeks to improve the existing interchange at Cantrell Road. The other alternative creates a new interchange near Fourth and Sixth streets and Capitol Avenue.

The Metroplan board Wednesday approved a resolution endorsing the latter alternative, which is the version Stodola prefers, in part because it would remove the interchange and Cantrell, and create 18 acres of green space.

The city also received concessions on the extra four lanes. Crossing the bridge, the four lanes act as collector-distributor lanes, which are separated by a barrier wall from the main lanes and require slower speeds. They allow vehicles crossing between North Little Rock and Little Rock to avoid using the main interstate lanes.

Once in Little Rock, the four lanes remain separated from the main lanes and serve as frontage roads. But they will be above the main lanes and on the same level with city streets. They also will have narrower lanes, traffic signals and other features used on city streets to slow traffic.

The I-30 project, the state's largest infrastructure project, will redesign and rebuild the congested 6.7-mile route largely between Interstate 530 in Little Rock and Interstate 40 in North Little Rock and replace the I-30 bridge over the Arkansas River.

A draft of an environmental review of the project is expected to be finished later this month. Another public hearing will be held on the environmental review.

The Federal Highway Administration will then determine if the environmental review is sufficient or a more exhaustive one is warranted. If not, the agency can approve the document, a decision that is expected by March.

Construction could begin in early 2019 and be completed by 2023, according to the latest department estimates.

Metro on 12/02/2017

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