Residents, groups suing Arkansas to block 2 highway projects

LITTLE ROCK — A group of Arkansas neighborhoods and residents filed a lawsuit seeking to block the state from completing two interstate projects — including a $1 billion plan to widen an interstate corridor in the heart of downtown Little Rock — until it can prove the projects comply with an October ruling that said a half-cent sales tax can’t be used to fund highways with more than four lanes.

The Arkansas Supreme Court’s Oct. 29 decision reversed a lower court’s ruling to dismiss a suit challenging a I-30 corridor project running through downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock. The 30 Crossing project will expand the 6.7-mile (10.8-kilometer) I-30 corridor from six to as many as 10 lanes in some portions, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported.

The sales tax, approved by voters in 2012, supports the Arkansas Department of Transportation’s $1.8 billion Connecting Arkansas Program that includes the $1.3 billion 30 Crossing project and another $187.3 million project that will widen a 5.5-mile (8.9-kilometer) section of I-30 in Saline County to six lanes from four.

Richard Mays, a Little Rock environmental lawyer representing Little Rock neighborhoods and residents, filed the lawsuit against the department in Pulaski County Circuit Court on Thursday.

The department didn’t have an immediate comment, said spokesman Dave Parker.

Mays wrote a letter to the department and the Federal Highway Administration saying that the projects required assurances under federal regulations that there was enough funding for them to be completed.

The projects no longer have those assurances because of the high court’s ruling.

The lawsuit says the agencies responded to his letter and they had no comment.

The department’s financial plan for 30 Crossing states that if there is any unexpected changes in authorized funding or availability during phase one of the project “ARDOT will utilize state funding reserves to supplement the shortfall and/or make adjustments to the long-range plan making funds available to complete this project by delaying the start of new projects.”

The department spent $38.9 million in tax money on 30 Crossing in federal fiscal year 2020, which ended Sept. 30, according to the plan. In federal fiscal year 2021, the department said it had $120 million available, including $100 million in tax money.

Mays said he doesn’t see how the agency can handle both projects with the tax money available and asked for a preliminary and permanent injunction barring further work on both projects.

The lawsuit has been assigned to Pulaski County Circuit Judge Mackie Pierce.