Highway contracts awarded

The Arkansas Highway Commission on Wednesday awarded contracts totaling $28.5 million on 11 projects, including a $7.8 million project to build a second interchange on Interstate 40 at Lonoke.

Redstone Construction Group Inc. of Little Rock submitted the low bid, which state highway officials must review before it is approved. The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department rejected a similar bid last year, but agency spokesman Randy Ort couldn’t say Wednesday whether the latest bid would meet the same fate.

The proposed interchange would be west of Lonoke’s single interchange and would convert what serves as an overpass for Arkansas 89. Lonoke has committed some money to the project to make it happen, Ort said.

The commission also opened an apparent low bid on the first phase of the Cash bypass on Arkansas 226 in Craighead County.Dumey Contracting Inc. of Benton, Mo., said it could do the grading and structures for $1.4 million.

The bypass is part of a long-range project to widen Arkansas 226 to four lanes and give Jonesboro a fourlane route to Little Rock. Arkansas 226 connects U.S. 67 to U.S. 49. Both of those U.S. highways are four lanes.

Other projects on which bids were opened Wednesday, including the apparent low bid amount and the apparent low bidder were:

Widen 1.11 miles of Arkansas 18 from two lanes to five lanes in Monette in Craighead County, $4 million, Lakeside Contractors LLC of Jonesboro.

Install a cable median barrier on 9.3 miles of U.S. 64 around Vilonia in Faulkner County, $1.2 million, Interstate Highway Construction Inc. of Englewood, Colo.

Install a cable median barrier on 5.2 miles of U.S. 71 and U.S. 271 south of Fort Smith in Sebastian County, $941,688, Nationwide Construction Group of Chesterfield, Mich.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 01/10/2013

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