STAR CITY - The sun baked the newly laid asphalt on Arkansas 530 just outside Star City on Friday morning where 200 people gathered for the roadway’s official dedication. The road will officially open Thursday, and many in southeast Arkansas are eager to drive on it.
“It’s wonderful to see a new project like this take shape,” said Star City resident June Crowley, who attended Friday’s ceremony.
“It shows us that people haven’t forgotten about us down here in this part of the state. And we feel likethis gives us a spotlight for more growth.”
The $120 million Arkansas 530 project is part of a planned 38-mile four-lane highway known as the Interstate 69 connector road. It is to eventually connect Interstate 530 in Pine Bluff to Arkansas 278 near Wilmar and to the proposed Interstate 69.
Plans for I-69 - expected to run from Canada to Mexico through southeast Arkansas - have been in development for years, but funding for some segments has not been found. Signs noting a “future I-69 corridor” dot the Arkansas roads.
The first segment of the future I-69 is under construction as a bypass around Monticello. The roughly 8.5-mile segment connects U.S. 425 east to U.S. 278. Initially it will be only a two-lane road. The $13.1 million project began in the fall of 2011 and is expected to be completed in the early fall of 2014.
That project covers the grading and structures, which include two bridges. The base and surface will be added under a separate contract that is expected to be awarded about the time the first project is completed, a department spokesman said.
Funding for the Arkansas 530 project included a 1999 U.S. Department of Transportation Appropriations Act allocation for $100 million of federal general funds that did not require any state matching money, according to the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department.
The portion of Arkansas 530 dedicated Friday is 18 miles long and runs to Arkansas 114 just west of Star City.
Another completed portion of the highway stretches between Arkansas 35 and U.S. 278 just west of Monticello.
In 2014, a third section of the highway will be completed between Arkansas 114 and a connector road stretching from Arkansas 11 to U.S. 425. The cost of that project is $32.2 million, Highway Department officials said.
Arkansas 530 is currently two lanes but will be widened as funds become available, according to the Highway Department. A completion date for the entire 38-mile highway has not been set because funds are not yet available to finish it, Highway Department spokesman Glenn Bolick said.
The entire 38-mile project is estimated to cost $608 million, Bolick said.
Pine Bluff Mayor Debe Hollingsworth and other officials said at Friday’s dedication that the new highway is expected to spark economic growth in southeast Arkansas.
“This is another product of new infrastructure connecting the cities in this part of the state,” Hollingsworth said.
“This is just the beginning of economic growth that can springboard off of a project like this. This will allow southeast Arkansas to flourish and help to bring in new industries by connecting all of our resources.”
Arkansas Highway Commissioner Robert Moore Jr. echoed Hollingsworth’s comments, saying that projects such as Arkansas 530 are “interwoven with economic development. This represents the best of the American spirit. This is the basis of a real revival in southeast Arkansas.” Information for this article was contributed by Noel E. Oman of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 09/07/2013