Wider I-30 plan only shifts jams, planners advise

Ward Mayor Art Brooke looks over congestion charts for the downtown Little Rock/North Little Rock Interstate 30 corridor during a Metroplan meeting Wednesday in Little Rock. Ward is the northernmost city on Arkansas 67/167 in the Metroplan district.
Ward Mayor Art Brooke looks over congestion charts for the downtown Little Rock/North Little Rock Interstate 30 corridor during a Metroplan meeting Wednesday in Little Rock. Ward is the northernmost city on Arkansas 67/167 in the Metroplan district.

Widening Interstate 30 across the Arkansas River and in portions of downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock would eventually cause bottlenecks and worsen congestion on other sections of the roadway as well as a part of Interstate 630, planning and highway officials said Wednesday.

In an effort to be fully transparent, leaders want to solicit public feedback on changing how the proposed "30 Crossing" project is described in central Arkansas' long-range transportation plan.

The proposed Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department project calls for replacing the section of I-30 across the Arkansas River bridge and widening it to eight or 10 lanes. The project includes work on a 6.7-mile portion of the interstate.

Critics of the project have long said that adding lanes to the roadway wouldn't solve traffic congestion there but would just move it elsewhere.

The Highway Department's traffic forecasting models also show that.

The department is requesting a language update in Metroplan's long-range transportation plan -- a 25-year plan called Imagine Central Arkansas that the transportation planning agency is required by the Federal Highway Administration to maintain.

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A map showing the Interstate 30 corridor project

"If 30 Crossing is going to operate at an optimal level with minimal congestion, there are other projects that would have to be considered, because other bottlenecks would back up traffic in the corridor," Metroplan Deputy Director Casey Covington told Metroplan's Board of Directors on Wednesday. "We're not saying these projects are specifically endorsed, just that they would be necessary."

Highway Department traffic models show that in 2021 -- the year 30 Crossing construction is estimated to be completed -- the changes would cause a traffic bottleneck on I-30 where it meets Interstates 530 and 440. The portion of the interstate from that area to the 65th Street exit would need to be improved or widened, Metroplan documents state.

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Then if that section is also widened, by 2041 the traffic models show that there would be another choke point where the 65th Street exit begins. That section all the way to the I-430 corridor would need to be changed, officials said.

In addition to those areas, Covington said, Highway Department forecasting shows slight morning rush-hour congestion on I-630 where it meets I-30 all the way to the University Avenue exit in the 2021 opening year. That congestion intensifies by 2026. By 2041, the congestion there would be "much more pronounced" and "becomes a bigger issue," Covington said.

"By 2041, we think there would be a need to look at some type of improvements to I-630 to relieve those congestion points," he said.

In a presentation to an advisory board last week, it was originally suggested that the description of the 30 Crossing project in the Imagine Central Arkansas long-range plan be updated from "operational improvements and major reconstruction" to "operational improvements, major widening and reconstruction."

Since then, Metroplan and Highway Department leaders got together and changed that to update the description to read: "capacity improvements and reconstruction."

One Metroplan board member asked why "major widening" was removed from the language and whether there was a technical distinction between that phrase and "capacity improvements."

Metroplan Director Tab Townsell said there wasn't a distinction and that officials were merely trying to more accurately describe the project.

"Let's not mistake this as us trying to be cute with this. Capacity improvements does include major widening. But, in other places though, capacity improvements can't necessarily be called major widening. ... We do not want to dodge the point that in some places this is going to be a major widening. Actually, in most places," Townsell said. "We don't want to be euphemistically trying to doctor this up."

Covington said communications to the public about the proposed amendment to the long-range plan would be clear that major widening is proposed.

A public meeting has been set for 6 p.m. May 17 at the Ron Robinson Theater to allow public feedback on the proposed amendment. The theater is at 100 River Market Avenue in downtown Little Rock.

Townsell encouraged Metroplan board members to attend.

"This public hearing is a chance for the public to come speak, but who they are coming to speak to is you," he told them.

There was little discussion on the proposed language change at Wednesday's board meeting, and no one addressed the board on the matter.

More discussion is expected at the board's June meeting, when the board will decide whether to approve the proposed amendment after considering the public's input.

In last week's meeting of the Regional Planning Advisory Council when the proposed amendment was first discussed, Highway Department officials said the 30 Crossing project isn't designed to fully eliminate congestion and that doing so isn't feasible in an urban environment as complex as the I-30 corridor.

"None of the [options] are going to eliminate congestion. The question is more how you manage congestion in urban areas," said Ben Browning, design/build project director for the agency.

Besides adding lanes, the project's aims are to improve the corridor's infrastructure -- the pavement and the Arkansas River bridge need to be replaced -- and to make the corridor safer to navigate, he said.

State highway officials have identified $631.7 million in state and federal money to devote to the project. The proposed amendment language to the long-range plan also updates the estimated cost of the project, which was originally estimated at a slightly higher amount.

Metroplan's approval of the amendment language is just one of a handful of items that must take place before the 30 Crossing project can go to the construction phase.

Information for this article was contributed by Noel Oman of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Metro on 04/27/2017

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