I-30 corridor study wins U.S. approval

Review’s OK a ‘major milestone’ for $450 million project, state says

A map showing the Interstate 30 corridor project.
A map showing the Interstate 30 corridor project.

A year-long planning study on how to improve the congested Interstate 30 corridor through downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock has won formal federal government approval, state highway officials announced Wednesday.

The Federal Highway Administration's letter accepting the planning and environmental linkages, or PEL, study and its recommendations to widen the 6.7-mile corridor allows state highway officials to move to a more in-depth environmental review of the estimated $450 million project.

The effort aims to reduce congestion on the thoroughfare between Interstate 530 in Little Rock and Interstate 40 in North Little Rock and a small stretch of I-40 between I-30 and U.S. 67/167, also in North Little Rock.

The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department also announced it has named the project -- which is likely to be its most expensive ever -- "30 Crossing," continuing a practice it began with the recently completed redesign of the Interstate 430/Interstate 630 interchange in west Little Rock, which the agency dubbed "the Big Rock Interchange."

The project includes replacing the Arkansas River bridge, which was built 50 years ago and carries 125,000 vehicles daily. Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2018 and last until 2022.

The department, in announcing the federal government's approval, called it a "major milestone."

"This is the first of many 'major milestones,'" said Danny Straessle, a department spokesman. "There was a lot of work accomplished in the last year."

Milestones will include completion of the comprehensive environmental review, which will include a partial design of the project, and the selection of the team that will complete the design and build the project. The design-build contract is a first for the department, which typically has a project designed by one team and, based on the lowest bid, built by another. The design-build alternative is designed to save time.

The study was the first such review conducted on an Arkansas highway project. It was conducted by the consultants overseeing the project, Garver LLC, an engineering firm based in North Little Rock, and HNTB, a national infrastructure consulting firm based in Kansas City, Mo.

The project's new director, Ben Browning, said in a statement that the study provided an early opportunity to identify the corridor's shortcomings and strengths in a collaborative process.

"The study took a first look at I-30's system capacity, safety and deficiencies within the study area," Browning said. "Following the PEL process has provided the opportunity to initiate early coordination with agencies, stakeholders and the public, while also providing a mechanism to make early planning-level decisions that will reduce the time needed to complete the environmental process."

The study recommended that the corridor be widened from six to 10 lanes, with one lane in each direction from just south of Broadway in North Little Rock to Cantrell Road in Little Rock to serve as downtown collector/distributor lanes.

A barrier would separate those lanes from the main lanes and connect the main lanes with the interchange ramps and allow vehicles to operate at lower speeds than the main lanes but higher speeds than frontage roads.

The study determined that this alternative would best relieve traffic congestion, improve roadway safety, address structural and functional roadway and bridge deficiencies, and improve navigation safety on the Arkansas River, the department said in a news release.

Peter Jilek, the acting division administrator for the Federal Highway Administration, said in the acceptance letter that the study should save time and money in the more extensive environmental review, which will be conducted by the consulting firm, CH2M Hill.

"Some of the strengths exhibited throughout the PEL study include a meaningful and attentive engagement of the public, local public agencies, and resource agencies, development of a sound purpose and need statement and project goals; and the thorough evaluation of a reasonable range of alternatives," Jilek wrote.

The project is part of the Connecting Arkansas Program, which is funded through one-half percent increase in the state sales tax that will be in place for 10 years. It was approved by voters in 2012.

The $1.8 billion program has 35 projects in 19 corridors designed to expand selected two-lane roadways to four-lane routes and add new lanes to some interstates.

The department has spent about $4.3 million on the study. The environmental review has a budget that cannot exceed $5.7 million, Straessle said.

The I-30 planning and linkage study report is available on the Connecting Arkansas Program website at

http://connectingarkansasprogram.com/interstate-30-pel-report.

Metro on 07/30/2015

Upcoming Events