The Arkansas Department of Transportation has won another competitive grant to help pay for a project to widen two sections of U.S. 67 in Pulaski and Lonoke counties.
The $10 million grant under a U.S. Department of Transportation program is the second the project has received this year. The agency received $40 million in June that will help defray the state's share of the cost of the work, which could reach $160 million.
The agency also received a $4 million grant from the same program to help pay for a railroad overpass as part of a north-south connector from U.S. 278 to the Arkansas 83 Spur in Monticello.
"We're very happy, obviously, about this," Kevin Thornton, the department's assistant chief for administration, told the Arkansas Highway Commission at its meeting Wednesday.
The projects were part of the 70 in 44 states for which the U.S. Transportation Department awarded $1 billion in grants under the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development, a discretionary grants program that targets regionally significant projects.
The federal agency said it employs such discretionary grant programs to "use a rigorous merit-based process to select projects with exceptional benefits, explore ways to deliver projects faster and save on construction costs, and make needed investments in our nation's infrastructure."
The state Transportation Department made an application for a grant for a third project -- a railroad overpass and realignment of Arkansas 89 in Mayflower. It was awarded no money.
But in response to a question from commission member Marie Holder of Little Rock, Thornton said federal transportation officials will hold a debriefing on why the Mayflower work wasn't considered as strong as the other projects.
The U.S. 67 project, apparently, was a strong one.
It will focus work on a 2.5-mile section of the highway between Main Street and Vandenberg Boulevard in Jacksonville and a 2.8-mile section between Arkansas 5 and Arkansas 89 in Cabot.
Jacksonville, population 28,253, and Cabot, population, 26,352, are close to Little Rock Air Force Base, a major economic generator in the region. The base is home to the world's largest fleet of Lockheed C-130 Hercules and Super Hercules, a tactical airlift aircraft.
The project for which the grant was awarded includes building an overpass, converting the frontage roads to one-way operation and reconstructing two interchanges to make it a modern interstate-quality thoroughfare. Up to 80,000 vehicles travel daily through the corridor,
Other money available for the project includes proceeds from the statewide 0.5% sales tax voters approved in 2012 as part of the $1.8 billion Connecting Arkansas Program, which is a state-level program targeting regionally significant construction. It will be the last project to be built under the program.