More than 350 people attended a three-hour public hearing Thursday to view and submit comments on the latest plans on the $630.7 million project to improve the Interstate 30 corridor through downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock.
The hearing at the Wyndham Riverfront Hotel in North Little Rock was part of a 45-day public review of the 3,992-page environmental assessment on the project called 30 Crossing.
"A lot of good comments, a lot of negative comments and so you can say that's ... neutral," said Danny Straessle, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Transportation. "We're pleased with it."
The Arkansas Department of Transportation will accept written comments for another two weeks. Agency officials will respond to each comment and include them in the environmental assessment that they will submit to the Federal Highway Administration for approval.
If approved, construction likely will begin some time in 2019. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2023.
Project planning began four years ago to ease congestion and improve safety in the corridor, where six major highways come together in less than 7 miles. The I-30 bridge over the Arkansas River, built for $5 million, dates to the 1950s and carries 124,000 vehicles daily.
Under the preferred alternative route selected as a result of the environmental review, the project will widen to 10 lanes a 6.7-mile section of I-30 largely between Interstate 530 in Little Rock and Interstate 40 in North Little Rock, replace the I-30 bridge and make some improvements to I-40 between I-30 and U.S. 67/167 in North Little Rock.
The 10 lanes include six through lanes that the section has now and four additional lanes for local traffic between Little Rock and North Little Rock.
The project also will eliminate the partial cloverleaf interchange at Cantrell Road, which is now used to funnel traffic to and from downtown Little Rock, and replace it with a split diamond interchange.
Under the preferred alternative, I-30 will have continuous frontage roads between East Fourth Street and Interstate 630 and make some changes to Little Rock streets, including widening East Second Street to four lanes and re-striping East Fourth to three lanes.
Metro on 07/15/2018