I-30 study set on easing crowding

Look at LR-to-Benton stretch to include toll, carpool lane

A state study to address future congestion on Interstate 30 between Little Rock and Benton will include consideration of adding a traffic lane limited to high-occupancy vehicles and motorists willing to pay a toll.

Engineers and planners involved in an Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department study fielded questions and concerns about how to address the increase in traffic in the corridor by 2040 during a public meeting Monday evening at the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department’s central office in Little Rock.

Work to address congestion along the 21-mile route, which will include improvements to interchanges on Interstate 430 and where Interstates 530 and 440 converge, and additional lanes to roadways crossing I-30, is expected to take place in stages in the next 10 to 20 years.

The managed traffic lane would be the first in Arkansas. It is a concept gaining traction around the nation as traffic growth outpaces the ability of highway engineers and planners to build more roads.

Over the past 20 years, the total number of vehicle miles in the United States has increased 70 percent, according to the Federal Highway Administration. Over the same time span, highway capacity has grown less than 1 percent.

Managed lanes come in different styles. One uses traditional toll lanes and toll lanes that vary in price to manage demand, such as using a peak-period surcharge or an off-peak discount.

Other managed traffic lanes use vehicle eligibility, typically limiting them to vehicles with a minimum number of occupants per vehicle, or are used as express lanes by limiting access for long stretches, which minimizes upsetting the flow of traffic.

The study engineers have concluded that a hybrid of pricing and vehicle eligibility would be needed to ensure that a managed traffic lane would work on the Little Rock-to-Benton segment of I-30.

The segment carries a significant amount of commuter traffic limited to peak hours of the day and primarily involves people living in Saline County and working in Pulaski County.

The traffic doesn’t have enough people car-pooling or using van rides and other high-occupancy vehicles, such as buses, to make the investment in a managed lane worthwhile unless motorists in single-occupant vehicles willing to pay a toll were allowed to use the managed lane.

The combination “looks like a strategy that could address the issues in the corridor,” said Mike Brugge, a senior transportation engineer in the Memphis office of the Parsons Corp., an international engineering, construction, technical and professional services firm based in Pasadena, Calif.

Metroplan, the federally designated metropolitan planning organization for central Arkansas, sought to have an evaluation of the managed traffic lane concept included in the study, which the Arkansas Highway Commission authorized in 2014 at a cost not exceeding $727,971.

“We were excited to see it getting consideration,” said Casey Covington, the agency’s executive director. “It seems to perform well.”

Brugge said the region has few other options to relieve congestion on the corridor, which is the main route for thousands of commuters every day between Little Rock and communities in Saline County.

Arkansas 5, which also goes between Benton and Little Rock, has been undergoing work to improve its role as a major traffic route. But with 14 traffic signals along its route between Saline and Pulaski counties, it is best positioned to serve local traffic, Brugge said.

It also is unlikely another route could be built, given the environmentally sensitive wetlands to the south and east of I-30 and the steep ridges to its north and west, he said.

Traffic volume, particularly at peak periods in the morning and afternoon, has grown in lockstep with population increases in Saline County, Brugge said. Since 2000, the population in the county has grown 41 percent, to 118,703 in 2016 from 83,940 in 2000, an increase of 34,763.

The study, along with its recommendations, likely will be ready in June. At that point, a study looking at the best places and best ways to install managed lanes throughout the region will begin.

“It’s going to take a whole long series of conversations between AHTD and the region,” Brugge said. “Metroplan, all the different Metroplan members, will have to be part in a conversation about what are the appropriate strategies for looking at congested corridors going down the road.”

Fewer than two dozen people showed up for Monday’s meeting. State highway officials expect more at today’s meeting, which will be held from 4-7 p.m. in the cafeteria of Collegeville Elementary School at 4818 Arkansas 5 in Bryant.

The people who showed up Monday said they liked what they saw.

“They’ve got some very good ideas,” said Troy D. Laha, who lives near the Highway Department and drives I-30 daily. “When people get off the interstates, they don’t have anywhere to go. Making bigger ramps will help.”

William and Euletia Cates, who run USA Self Storage off I-30 at Scott Hamilton Drive, said they have been surprised at the “tremendous amount of traffic” on I-30.

“We see traffic jammed up quite often,” William Cates said, adding that they were pleased with the plans “however long it takes” for the projects to get built.