Job to affect U.S. 67/167 traffic

Construction on U.S. 67/167 in Pulaski and Lonoke counties will require overnight lane closures for six days beginning Sunday and a lane shift that will last several months, the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department said.

At the same time, work on the highway’s frontage road, T.P. White Drive, in the same location also will require another round of intermittent lane closures.

Crews working within the U.S. 67/167 median between Vandenberg Boulevard in Jacksonville and Arkansas 5 in Cabot to place concrete barriers will require lane closures in both directions each day through May 20, weather permitting.

The inside and outside northbound lanes will alternately be closed from Vandenberg to north of Jacks Bayou between 8 p.m. and 1 p.m. The same southbound lanes between Vandenberg and Arkansas 5 will alternately be closed between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Traffic will be controlled using signs and barrels, the department said.

Within the northbound lane closures, crews will be preparing for and then implementing a traffic shift from existing lanes onto temporary lanes at the Jacks Bayou bridge. This lane shift is anticipated to be in effect for several months as bridge construction takes place within the median at Jacks Bayou, the department said.

Meanwhile, crews working on box culvert construction under T.P. White Drive will require the closure of multiple areas, also beginning Sunday.

Traffic will be reduced to one lane from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily through May 20, again weather permitting.

The work is part of a $79.2 million project to widen 4.6 miles of the highway between Vandenberg Boulevard and Arkansas 5 to six lanes from four.

A central Arkansas teacher was taken out of her classroom Friday and arrested on a public intoxication charge, authorities said.

Several teachers at Maumelle High School reported that the instructor, Ann Higgins, smelled of intoxicants and was “acting in a strange manner,” the Maumelle Police Department said.

Higgins was removed from the classroom. She took a breathalyzer test that showed a blood alcohol level of 0.14 percent, according to a news release from police. The blood-alcohol level at which a person is considered intoxicated in Arkansas is 0.08 percent.

The teacher was taken to the Maumelle Police Department and was cited, authorities said. She was released a short time later and is set to appear June 20 in Maumelle District Court.

According to a faculty listing for the school, which is part of the Pulaski County Special School District, Higgins teaches psychology and American history.

Maumelle teacher removed, arrested