Even before the sixth public meeting for the Interstate 30 corridor project through downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock began Tuesday evening, a groundswell seemed to be building for the latest alternative, which was displayed for the first time.
30 Crossing 3D Simulation: I-30 Proposed 8-Lane and 6-Lane with C/D Lanes Alternatives (Split Diamond Interchange) from AHTD on Vimeo.
30 Crossing 3D Simulation: I-30 Proposed 8-Lane and 6-Lane with C/D Lanes Alternatives (Single Point Urban Interchange) from AHTD on Vimeo.
Support is coalescing around a proposal to shift the interchange at Cantrell Road that currently funnels I-30 traffic into downtown farther to the south, allowing traffic to go to and from downtown from Fourth, Sixth and Ninth streets and Capitol Avenue.
The new interchange is included in both the 10-lane alternative now known as "six-lane with collector/distributor lanes" and the eight-lane alternative. Both alternatives also are being considered with an improved Cantrell interchange still in place.
The first sign of support may have been a comment on a social media site from Skip Rutherford, dean of the Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service who is closely allied with the Clinton Presidential Center:
"Apparent winners in I-30 compromise 10-lane plan (6 interstate-4 access): Clinton Presidential Park; @RiverMarket district; NLR; commuters," he said in a post Tuesday night on his Twitter account.
Then Tuesday afternoon, Nate Coulter, the newly installed executive director of the Central Arkansas Library System, issued a statement supporting the new interchange, which is called a split diamond interchange. The system's flagship library is in the River Market.
"From our perspective in the River Market, the most recent proposal is an attractive development with some very clear benefits for the CALS Main Library campus," Coulter said. "The removal of the I-30 2nd Street ramps will create significant new green space beside the library and easier access to the library from the south. This will become increasingly important as growth continues in the River Market District."
Meanwhile, the Little Rock Technology Park Authority Board is scheduled to hold a special meeting by teleconference at 8:15 a.m. today to discuss what the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department calls the 30 Crossing project.
The movement toward a potential compromise came as some 400 people attended Tuesday's public hearing, held at the Wyndham Riverfront hotel in downtown North Little Rock.
The project to widen the 6.7-mile corridor and replace the bridge over the Arkansas River comes with a $631 million price tag. Engineers say the project typically would be accomplished in four or five projects over 20 years. But they say they are taking advantage of a statewide 0.5 percent sales tax voters approved in 2012 -- that is providing 64 percent of the project funding -- to make the improvements all at once in a shorter time. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2018 and be completed in 2022.
Scott Bennett, executive director of the Highway Department, began the hearing, uncharacteristically, with a brief presentation. The department's public hearings typically are limited to displays about the project that the public can view in an open-house format. Questions or comments can be directed to engineers and other personnel stationed at each display.
Bennett noted that the department has taken more than 1,000 comments and held more than 100 meetings since planning began in earnest on the project two years ago. The meetings have been to help the department refine the purpose and need of the project, which include mobility and safety on the interstate and on the river, as well as enhancing connections to either side of the corridor.
"A lot of that feedback that we have received has brought us to where we are today," Bennett said. "We have been working to refine those alternatives. We've evaluated a lot of options, a lot of the options that have come from the public, such as tunnels, double-decking the bridge, boulevards, new alignments.
"We've looked at all of them from the standpoint of cost and engineering and the environmental impacts. We believe what we are going to show you tonight are the best alternatives we have to meet the goals of the project."
Chris East, president of StudioMain, a nonprofit organization with a mission "to create a better community through design," came out for the split diamond interchange alternative and highlighted the potential for new development that it brings, including the creation of a Little Rock version of New York City's Central Park.
He said he believes the alternative harks back to downtown Little Rock's past as a pedestrian-dominated area.
"The reason we support it is we believe this design reconnects the street grid, it enhances mobility, it enhances the green space, it does accommodate multimodal transportation, it connects cultural institutions and provides wonderful development opportunities," East said.
Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola said he was struck by the "Central Park" concept.
"One of the things I think is very paramount is the tremendous opportunity to create a downtown central park, 17 to 18 acres that turns into a unique once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for downtown Little Rock," he said.
Stodola said he would wait for the city's own project consultant "to give us a little more information on it, but they're moving in the right direction and I'm very happy to see that."
Opponents of the department's plan still balk at putting additional lanes on an urban freeway, but they conceded the department has listened to them to some degree.
"This is better than what they started with," said Tom Fennell, a longtime Little Rock architect who has developed a proposal to transform the corridor through Little Rock into a boulevard. "Everybody would have to agree with that. I think the dialogue is better.
"What this doesn't address is the fact they are adding freeway lanes and freeway lanes are going to create induced demand. We are going to be in the same boat. It's not really going to solve the congestion."
He and activist Tim McKuin, and others, have hired their own consultant, who said his traffic modeling showed the department consultants have underestimated the demand the newly widened corridor would create.
"I still think a boulevard is the best solution for downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock in the long term," McKuin said. "I think having an interstate in a downtown urban area was not the original plan for the interstate highway system. We need to get ... away from that past mistake.
"The department seems to be narrowing it down to picking from one to four different options. I will say this: The department has made a lot of changes to its original plan, I think, in response to the community's outspoken opposition to their original plan.
"Whatever gets built in the end is going to be better than what they proposed at the beginning."
Metro on 04/27/2016