30 Crossing tab $417M for 4 years, filings show
The Arkansas Department of Transportation proposes spending $417 million in federal and state transportation money on the 30 Crossing project over the next four years, according to planning documents for the Central Arkansas region.
None of the money identified in the documents comes from the statewide 0.5% sales tax that voters approved when they passed Amendment 91 to the state Constitution in 2012.
The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled Oct. 29 that the department couldn’t spend Amendment 91 funds on roads that have more than four lanes, which includes the section of Interstate 30 through downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock that is part of the nearly $1 billion 30 Crossing project.
According to Richard Mays of Little Rock, one attorney who has chal
lenged 30 Crossing and other projects, the department had committed spending $452.5 million in Amendment 91 money on 30 Crossing.
Metroplan is tweaking its list of coming road construction projects in Central Arkansas to reflect the changes in project funding because of the Supreme Court decision regarding use of ‘Issue 1” funds for 30 Crossing, as well as “updated project schedules, and cost and new projects for 2023 and 2024.” The list won’t be ready until the meeting today.
While the total cost of the 30 Crossing project approaches $1 billion, the department has identified only enough money to pay for the $638 million that it said the first phase would cost. The first phase includes replacing the I-30 bridge over the Arkansas River.
The 30 Crossing project will widen a 6.7-mile corridor through downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock to 10 lanes between Interstate 530 in Little Rock and Interstate 40 in North Little Rock. In addition to replacing the bridge, the project includes improvements to a section of I-40 in North Little Rock. Work began on the first phase late last year.
The spending was outlined in an updated Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP), which identifies the projects that will be built in Central Arkansas between now and 2024. The plan must meet with the approval of the board of directors of Metroplan, the federally designated metropolitan planning agency for the region that includes Pulaski, Faulkner, Saline, Lonoke and Grant counties.
The Metroplan board held a special meeting Wednesday to approve authorizing agency staff members to prepare the updated document listing the 48 projects that are planned for the region through 2024 to go out for public comment.
Casey Covington, the agency’s deputy director, told the board that the amendment to the Transportation Improvement Plan would go out for public comment on Feb. 14 only after the Arkansas Highway Commission meets Wednesday to likely approve an updated state improvement plan.
The board and commis “I sion would meet separately in March to weigh the public comments and whether to approve their respective construction plans. Under federal regulations, the list of projects in the Transportation Improvement Plan must line up with the State Improvement Plan developed by the state Transportation Department and approved by the Arkansas Highway Commission in order for federal money to be spent.
The $417 million committed to 30 Crossing includes $334.1 million in federal transportation aid and $83.5 million in state aid. This year, $139 million would be spent on the project, $84 million would be spent in 2022, $86 million in 2023 and $46.2 million in the final year of the Transportation Improvement Plan.
The federal aid is from a mix of several different pots of money that the federal government uses to pay for its share of road construction projects.
In 2023 alone, the state transportation officials will use money from five separate spending categories to help reach the $86 million they expect to spend on the project that year.
The meeting came one day before a hearing before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Morgan “Chip” Welch, who wants an accounting of the Amendment 91 money on 30 Crossing and a second widening project on I-30 in Saline County.
After the Supreme Court ruling, Welch enjoined the department from spending any Amendment 91 money on 30 Crossing. The state’s high court had ruled that Amendment 91 money spent on 30 Crossing and on a Interstate 630 widening project was illegal because the roadways were being widened beyond the four-lane limit specified in the amendment.
The list of projects includes a mix that already have been planned because the amendment to the Transportation Improvement Plan is an update of a four-year document that is required every two years.
An addition to the list is an estimated $9 million interchange on Interstate 30 in Benton, contingent on the city contributing $5 million to the project, and a $10 million project to widen a section of Arkansas 107 between General Samuels Road and Arnold Drive in Pulaski County, which would complete the widening of the highway from North Little Rock to Little Rock Air Force Base.
Another added project is an estimated $35 million to extend the concrete pavement life on a 17-mile section of I-30 between Geyer Springs Road in Little Rock and Sevier Street in Benton.
The document also updates spending estimates. A project to widen sections of U.S. 67/167 in Jacksonville and Cabot is now estimated to cost $194 million. The money devoted to the project includes competitive grants that the federal government awarded in the amount of $50 million and $96 million in Amendment 91 money.
The 30 Crossing project will widen a 6.7-mile corridor through downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock to 10 lanes between Interstate 530 in Little Rock and Interstate 40 in North Little Rock.