LITTLE ROCK -- The state Highway and Transportation Department announced Tuesday 27 road and bridge projects it postponed earlier this year will go out for bids in October, including two in Northwest Arkansas.
The total is about one-third of the 87 projects worth $411 million that the department had pulled because of uncertainty over federal transportation funding.
The department also formally asked Gov. Asa Hutchinson for $36 million in state general improvement money to help guarantee the reinstatement of 49 resurfacing projects worth about $50 million, and the agency plans to re-instate 11 other projects later, likely in December.
Department officials credited the latest short-term federal funding extension that Congress recently approved. The extension doesn't expire until Oct. 29 and includes an $8.1 billion transfer of general revenue to the federal Highway Trust Fund.
Dick Trammel of Rogers, Arkansas Highway Commission chairman, announced the decision locally at a civic club meeting in Rogers in Tuesday.
"Congress has kicked the can down the road 34 times, and they don't want to do it again," Trammel said in an interview after the lunch meeting of the Rogers Noon Rotary Club at the Embassy Suites hotel.
How to pay for federal road programs has stymied Congress for months. Trammel said conversations with the state's congressional delegation have reassured commission members that a solution will be found. Trammel made his remarks as U.S. Sen. John Boozman, who is from Rogers, was concluding as the featured speaker.
"We're so confident that you're going to come up with a solution, we're going to start letting contracts on the 87 contracts that were delayed earlier," Trammel said, referring to his optimism that Congress would pass a long-term highway funding bill.
Even without further action from Congress, payments to state transportation departments from the Federal Highway Administration are now projected to flow normally until next spring, according to the department.
"We would like to thank Arkansas' congressional delegation who all voted in favor" of the extension and provided the money needed to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent for the next several months, Department Director Scott Bennett said in a statement issued Tuesday.
"This is great news for the state's economy," Bennett added.
The Northwest Arkansas projects include on-going improvements to Razorback Road and Garland Avenue on the University of Arkansas campus and a new bridge and approaches over the Middle Fork of the White River on Arkansas 16 between Fayetteville and Elkins.
The multiyear project on Razorback Road is widening it to four lanes through the University of Arkansas campus from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Maple Street and up the hill to Garland Avenue. The corridor will have sidewalks separated from both sides of the street by up to 10 feet of green space with trees.
Phase II of the project, which covers the Maple Street stretch and includes a signal at Razorback and Maple, was pulled in March. It was estimated to cost $2.7 million.
The announcement overshadowed Tuesday's modest bid letting, which the department had pared in July before Congress passed the most recent extension. The apparent low bids totaled $53.6 million for the 14 projects. But just two of the projects accounted for all but $5.2 million of the apparent low bids Wednesday.
The bids included a low bid of $21.6 million from APAC-Central Inc. of Fayetteville to widen a section of Interstate 49 from U.S. 412 to Wagon Wheel Road in Washington and Benton counties.
The low bids won't be final until department officials review them.
Bennett said the department decided to postpone the work because it didn't want to suspend ongoing work, it wanted to cover the bond payments for the state's $1.2 billion interstate repair program, and it didn't want to lay off any employees.
Other state transportation agencies have other sources of money from which to draw that are unavailable to the Arkansas department, including lines of credit from their state general revenue to keep projects going, he added.
"We have no way of raising revenue to offset the reduction, delay or loss of federal dollars that Arkansas depends upon for 70 percent of its highway construction program."
Arkansas and four other states pulled a total of $1.5 billion in construction projects, according to the American Association of State Transportation Officials.
The state's highway contractors weren't second-guessing the department's delays Tuesday, though the move was somewhat bittersweet for them.
"Our people, needless to say, are exited about the opportunity to bid on the work," said Richard Hedgecock, the executive director of the Arkansas chapter of Associated General Contractors.
"The timing is unfortunate because our people have lost an entire construction season. But we're thrilled they're putting the projects back."
Arkansas needs more money for road construction, state highway officials say. A working group Hutchinson formed earlier this year to study ways to raise money for highway construction meets again Thursday.
A spokesman for the governor was noncommittal on whether Hutchinson would acquiesce to the department's request for $36 million from the state's general improvement fund to help pay for the overlay program.
Bennett said that resurfacing work, which extends the life of pavement before a more expensive fix is needed, is more effective when state money is used because using federal money for the program invokes stricter standards under which not every highway qualifies.
"The governor has received Mr. Bennett's request," said J.R. Davis, the governor's spokesman. "He will take a look at it and study it, as he does with all requests. There's no timeline on when a decision will be made."
NW News on 09/02/2015