FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas 23’s on-again, off-again relationship with motorists hit the skids again Tuesday.
Instability below a section of the two-lane highway prompted the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department to close the highway about five miles north of Cass in Franklin County. It could take up to two weeks to reopen.
The closed section is part of the Pig Trail Scenic Byway, and it’s often used by people traveling between Little Rock and Northwest Arkansas. TheHighway Department listed Arkansas 21, U.S. 71 and Interstate 540 as good alternatives for those traveling north from Interstate 40.
“The pig’s lost its tail,” said Joe Shipman, the Highway Department’s district engineer at Fort Smith.
Logging and poultry truckers and U.S. Forest Service employees working in the Ozark National Forest also use the highway. Shipman said the Franklin County sheriff’s office and other emergency workers have been informed of the closure.
The Highway Department has long had difficulties with Arkansas 23.
Heavy rain in 2008 caused soil underneath the shoulder of Arkansas 23 to give way, but the slides did not carve pavement out of the lanes. Highway Department crews made temporary repairs, said Highway Department spokesman Randy Ort.
In August, Kesser International of Little Rock won a $2.5 million contract to repair the road by June 2010. The company plans to work seven days a week to keep that schedule,Shipman said.
A 1,200-foot section of highway north of Cass and a 200-foot section about a mile north of there were included in Kesser’s work, but the work has focused entirely on the larger section so far, Shipman said.
“He’s making good progress, but there have been setbacks,” Shipman said.
In October, the Highway Department announced sliding soil would limit Arkansas 23 to one lane while Kesser worked.
“Now, it’s gotten to the point where material is coming out from under the roadway,” Shipman said. “There’s the shale, and there’s material that looks like it has clay in it,but it’s sandy material and it doesn’t stick together well.”
A sign at Interstate 40’s exit forArkansas23warnsmotorists that the highway is shut down. A similar sign warns those on Arkansas 16 near Brashears in Madison County that Arkansas 23 is closed, Shipman said.
Weeks-long closures of highways are rare in Arkansas, but weather has shut down routes in northern Arkansas in the past 16 months, Ort said.
Arkansas 7 in Pope County became unstable due to rain and was shut down in September 2008.
In June, U.S. 71 near Mountainburg was closed for two weeks after a section of the road slid down a hillside.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 11 on 12/30/2009