Correction: Jerry Holder, a Garver LLC engineer who is managing a $1.8 billion highway construction program financed, in part, by a temporary half-cent increase in the state sales tax, said he hopes to have the majority of the 31 projects in the program completed within 10 years. This article incorrectly said he wanted to have the majority started in that time frame.
The first six projects that will be awarded contracts under a new voter-approved program to build four-lane highways and ease congestion on other routes are in Northwest Arkansas.
The projects are three that will complete the Bella Vista Bypass as a two-lane road, two that will widen sections of Interstate 540 in Washington and Benton counties and a sixth that will begin the northern Springdale Bypass.
The Bella Vista Bypass projects will be awarded contracts late this year and early next year, under the schedule prepared by Garver LLC, the North Little Rock engineering firm that the Arkansas Highway Commission picked to serve as project manager for the $1.8 billion program, which is financed by a temporary half-percent statewide sales tax that will be in place for the next 10 years.
In addition to a review of the schedule, the commission also heard from its bond counsel and adviser on the financial aspects of the program.
All six projects will be awarded contracts by mid-2015, according to the schedule.
The first non-Northwest Arkansas project on the schedule is widening U.S.64 between Turner Road and White County Road 5, which is between Vilonia in Faulkner County and Beebe in White County. It is scheduled to be awarded a contract in mid-2015.
Jerry Holder, a Garver engineer who is overseeing the program, told the Arkansas Highway Commission on Wednesday that the Northwest Arkansas projects were already on the drawing board and closest to being designed when they were selected to be among the 31 projects in what is being called the Connecting Arkansas Program.
“We didn’t just put all of them in a hat and draw one out,” he said.
Still, Holder said he would review the schedule after commission member Tom Schueck of Little Rock pointed out an Interstate 40 widening west of Interstate 430 in central Arkansas that should have been higher on the list. It is scheduled to be awarded a contract in late 2015.
“That has ramifications all the way back to Highway 10 in Little Rock,” Schueck said. “I think we can give that some more attention.”
Selecting those projects to go first will help in two objectives Holder established: to have the project designs be completed within five years and to have the majority of the projects started within 10 years.
In scheduling the projects, he had to weigh more than a half dozen factors, including how far along the projects were in surveys, environmental assessments, right-of-way acquisition and utility relocation. Holder said he also had to weigh the complexity of the project and the project’s impact on the driving public.
As for the latter factor, Holder said he couldn’t move the Interstate 30 bridge and corridor widening project up the list until the Broadway Bridge has been replaced, which is a separate project.Both bridges cross the Arkansas River between Little Rock and North Little Rock.
“We can’t have both of them shut down at the same time,” Holder said. The I-30 bridge and corridor widening project, which stretches from Interstate 530 to U.S. 67/167, isn’t scheduled to go to contract until early 2018 if the project is designed first and then built by a contractor, which is the typical way projects get done.
But in response to a question from Schueck, of Little Rock, Holder said the project is under serious consideration to be bid as a “design-build” project which is virtually designed and built at the same time or in close collaboration between a design firm and contractor. If that happens, Holder said, the project could begin sooner than scheduled.
However, the project is so complicated, Holder said, and his team is developing a management plan for the project.
“It’s the most expensive project, it’s the most complicated and it has the biggest risk associated with it,” he said. “If we blow that one, we’ll blow the entire program.”
After the Northwest Arkansas projects, the projects awarded contracts begin to spread over the rest of the state. In addition to the U.S. 64 project in north-central Arkansas, projects also will be on tap by 2015 for central Arkansas [Interstate 40], south Arkansas [U.S. 82] and east Arkansas [U.S. 64 again].
Given the number of projects and the scope of other projects, the schedule isn’t set in stone, he said. “This is our best educated guess,. But there will be things that change.”
In September, Garver will launch a website dedicated to the program. The website will include maps showing the locations, the status of the projects, lane closures and other information, Holder said.
The commission’s bond adviser and legal counsel said the amount of bonds necessary to finance the program is $496.5 million and will involve only one offering, tentatively scheduled in September. The bond amount is far less than the $1.3 billion voters authorized in a popular vote last November.
“You will have the sales tax revenue going to projects rather than interest,” said Dennis Hunt of Stephens Inc., the commission’s bond adviser. “We believe one issue of $496 million will take care of your program.”
If all goes well, money from the sale could be deposited into the commission in early October, they said.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 07/25/2013