Linking State Fair site, I-30 would take 7 years

Tag on LR proposal: Up to $45 million

— Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola's proposal to build an interchange on Interstate 30 and an alternate route to the Arkansas State Fairgrounds across the Fourche Creek Bottoms will be a costly and lengthy project, state transportation experts say.

Deciding that its current site on Roosevelt Road is too small, the Arkansas Livestock Show Association, which runs the annual State Fair, advertised for bids for alternate sites and has received 16 proposals. In the request for proposals, the group required that locations have at least 350 usable acres with land available for future expansion and be within 35 milesof the existing fairgrounds. It also said the site must be visible from an interstate or major four-lane highway.

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Fair ramp

The proposal submitted by Little Rock - to keep the fair at its current site - includes construction of the I-30 interchange to improve access to the fairgrounds.

The fairgrounds on Roosevelt Road have about 100 usable acres, according to Ralph Shoptaw, general manager of the State Fair. The association's lease from the state for the site includes 148 acres, but Shoptaw said 52 acres are too wet for development.

Stodola said he's not too worried that the cost or lengthiness of the project will torpedo Little Rock's proposal, which could cost as much as $45 million and take about seven years from start to finish.

"Based on [fair officials'] comments, they could be five years from doing anything," he said. "And even with the expense of the interchange, it's still much less expensive for them than picking up and moving someplace else."

The 50-year lease on the property signed in 2006 requires that the fairgrounds site be returned to its original condition.

Stodola said Little Rock wants to keep the fair and will work with the livestock association. Little Rock's proposal also includes renovating and expanding the current site to about 270 acres.

If the interchange is to be built, it must follow current federal guidelines that require interchanges be at least one mile apart in urban areas and two miles apart in rural areas. That means the roadway would have to be situated almost precisely halfway between two I-30 interchanges, one at I-440/I-530 and the other at West 65th Street.

The road would connect to Battery Street, which would be widened to Roosevelt Road, Stodola said Wednesday.

The new interchange would benefit more than the fairgrounds, he said.

"It would come in on Battery Street, within a block or so of the Central High School National Historic Site," Stodola said. "It would not only be an attraction for the fairgrounds, but for that site as well."

Even with the interchange spacing hurdle out of the way, a few others still remain.

The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department will require a feasibility study to prove that such a road is needed, said David Nilles, a spokesman for the agency.

"They will have to request a feasibility study, and that study will look at any number of things including traffic: does the traffic situation warrant it, and the location itself and how would it benefit that area," Nilles said. "They would have to make an argument that the interchange would give access that is absolutely vital to that area."

Such a study typically takes 18 months and Little Rock has not requested that the Highway Department perform one, Nilles said. The entire project - the study, the design phase, any environmental work needed, and construction - would take about seven years from start to finish, Nilles estimates.

Then there's the matter of funding.

"If it's an issue of economic development, then the burden of the cost falls to the local community," Nilles said.

The project has been by estimated by Metroplan, the regional transportation planning agency, to cost between $35 million and $45 million, Stodola said.

The cost estimate is a rough one, said Jim McKenzie, Metroplan's director.

"Virtually the whole thing would need to be on a structure over the wetlands," McKenzie said. "Essentially, it would be a long bridge."

Nilles said interchanges typically cost between $5 million and $10 million but because of the marshy terrain, the cost would likely be higher.

With the current state of the economy, McKenzie said, finding money for the project might be difficult.

"The connection would be eligible for federal funding, not that the federal government is awash in extra cash right now," McKenzie said.

Earlier this year, the state appointed the Arkansas Blue Ribbon Committee on Highway Finance to find an additional $200 million to fund the state's existing highway needs, McKenzie sits on that committee.

Sen. John Paul Capps, DSearcy, is chairman of the committee, which he said will not be discussing specific projects.

"The purpose and goal and intention of the blue ribbon committee was simply to find ways, innovative ways, to raise money for the highway system," Capps said. "If I commented on this, I would be violating that principal. It is up to the Highway Commission to decide where they think the money is most needed."

Front Section, Pages 1, 8 on 09/24/2009

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