Texas contractor put on design team for $58M Cantrell/I-430 job
A Fort Worth contractor has been tabbed to help design the estimated $58.3 million project to remake the congested Cantrell Road/ Interstate 430 interchange in west Little Rock.
Kiewit Infrastructure South is working on the first project the Arkansas Department of Transportation chose to build under a construction method new to Arkansas but used with success in other states.
Under the construction manager/contractor method, Kiewit will work with a Transportation Department team to design the project to complete it in a timely manner while managing traffic through the interchange.
“The construction manager will work side by side with the design team,” said Scott Bennett, the department director.
That section of Cantrell Road, which is also called Arkansas 10, is the busiest noninterstate thoroughfare in the state, with up to 54,000 vehicles traveling between Pleasant Valley and Pleasant Ridge roads every day.
Working with a contractor will allow the agency design team to make “informed decisions on design options based on the contractor’s expertise,” according to the Federal Highway Administration.
Once the project is designed, Kiewit will have the first opportunity to submit a bid to do the work. Its bid
will be compared with a project cost developed by an independent estimator the Transportation Department also will hire. If both figures are within 10 percent of each other, Kiewit will build the project.
If the difference between the two figures exceeds 10 percent, the project will go through the traditional bidding process, in which projects are designed and then contractors bid. The contractor that submits the lowest bid will be selected for the job. Kiewit will be allowed to participate in that process as well.
Kiewit was one of two contractors that submitted qualifications to manage and construct the project under Act 809 of 2017, which allows the department to use the method on up to three pilot projects not to exceed $200 million in total cost. Only one project at a time can be built under the manager/contractor method.
Agency staff members recommended Kiewit over McGeorge Contracting Co. of Pine Bluff.
Kiewit’s selection Tuesday by the Arkansas Highway Commission came less than five months after the department announced the plan to improve traffic flow on that section of Cantrell, which has seen surging traffic and increased development. A study of the corridor has projected that 76,000 vehicles will be using the corridor daily in 20 years.
The project is centered on a single-point urban interchange design in which the section of Cantrell, widened to six lanes from four, will have traffic go over the North Rodney Parham Road intersection rather than, as it does now, through it.
The elevated roadway is similar to the ramp that carries traffic on Interstate 630 over South Shackleford Road in the Interstate 430/Interstate 630 interchange.
The “single point” in the interchange design would be underneath Cantrell at North Rodney Parham. One traffic signal would control traffic moving onto or off Cantrell, which would allow motorists going east and west on Cantrell to avoid stopping at a light to accommodate North Rodney Parham traffic, a feature that is a source of much of the congestion in the corridor.
The design also includes a feature popularly known as a “Texas turnaround,” which will allow drivers traveling south on I-430 to go east on Cantrell. Motorists actually would travel west for a short distance, then make what amounts to a U-turn back to the east.
The Texas turnaround would replace a loop ramp that traffic now uses to go from southbound I-430 to eastbound Cantrell and would eliminate an element that has the southbound I-430 traffic merging into the same lane used by eastbound Cantrell traffic to access I-430 north.
The new interchange also will feature a traffic circle north of Cantrell and opposite North Rodney Parham that would serve traffic for the Walton Heights neighborhood, River Mountain Road and a bank and church facing Cantrell.
Kiewit already is well-acquainted with the interchange. It was the contractor that recently completed the $22.9 million construction of a ramp from Cantrell westbound to I-430 northbound.
Bennett said Kiewit personnel on the project were well-received by people in a neighborhood that adjoins the ramp.
“One of the neighbors threw a fish fry for the workers,” he said. “The neighbors were happy with the way things were going.”
The commission also accepted the department recommendation on the selection of Innovative Contracting & Engineering of Las Vegas to serve as an independent cost estimator that will work with the contractor and the design team.
The company will provide a “detailed cost estimate from a contractor’s perspective to ensure that the department can negotiate effectively with the [construction manager/ contractor] and provide the best value to the department.”
The commission also voted to send out a request for proposals for a second independent cost estimator that will observe the design work but keep its cost estimate from Kiewit. It is that estimate that will be used to verify whether Kiewit’s bid is within 10 percent of the independent estimate.