City gets U.S. cash for street repairs

$1M to help fix up road to campuses

TEXARKANA —A $1 million grant will fund street repairs on U of A Way, improving access to the University of Arkansas-Texarkana and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Southwest, Texarkana officials announced.

The grant, awarded by the federal Economic Development Administration, is earmarked “to improve drainage for the U of A Way road structure,” an agency news release states.

In addition to addressing drainage problems, plans include a complete street overlay, adding pedestrian crosswalks and constructing concrete curbs and gutters, said Assistant Public Works Director Tracie Lee, who led the grant application effort.

The successful application for the “very competitive” grant was the city’s fourth try, Lee said.

“This time, we were lucky,” she said.

Begun in June 2015, the application process involved first submitting a letter stating the scope of the project. The federal agency then invited applicants with the most promising projects to complete full applications.

The next step is an engineering design plan, which Lee expects to be completed by October. Then the city will accept bids for the work, and the city’s Board of Directors will award a contract. The project could be finished by the middle of next year.

Mayor Ruth Penney-Bell said she is excited about the opportunity to repair the street as soon as possible, especially because of UA-Texarkana and UAMS Southwest.

“If you’ve driven it, you know why. We have those two new facilities there, but to get to them, you have to dodge potholes,” she said.

“We knew we had to do something, but we just didn’t have the money. … We are really thrilled that we won’t have to wait.”

The presence of UA-Texarkana and UAMS Southwest played an important role in securing the grant, City Manager Kenny Haskin said.

“This grant will go a long way toward improving the infrastructure in that area of town, and we couldn’t have gotten there without UAMS and the UA System trusting and believing in Texarkana. The grant was in part predicated on the fact that they are there. Those were the two anchors we needed to get the [Economic Development Administration] grant,” he said.

The Economic Development Administration news release points to flooding as the cause of U of A Way’s disrepair.

“During heavy rainfall, the pooling of water from Lake Dieffenbacher and the detention pond on University of Arkansas property has caused flooding problems on local roads as well as in Bobby Ferguson Park and the surrounding residential neighborhood. The [Economic Development Administration] investment will help to improve the drainage system that has undermined the integrity of the U of A Way road structure,” it states.

“Ensuring that our communities have the infrastructure they need to grow and thrive is a key priority for the Economic Development Administration,” Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker said in the release.

“This [Economic Development Administration] grant will facilitate necessary improvements to Texarkana’s U of A Way that will spur commercial development in the region.”

The Economic Development Administration, an agency within the Department of Commerce, is the only federal government agency focused exclusively on economic development, according to its website, eda.gov. The agency’s mission is “to lead the federal economic development agenda by promoting innovation and competitiveness, preparing American regions for growth and success in the worldwide economy.”