CONTRACT AWARDED for work on Interstate 540.

Interchange on I-540 to be widened

The Arkansas Highway Commission on Wednesday awarded contracts totaling $33.3 million on two more projects under the state’s $1.2 billion interstate repair program.

By far the largest of the two was a project to reconstruct 2 miles of Interstate 40 and repair six bridges on the section between Arkansas 77 and Interstate 55 at West Memphis. Koss Construction Co. of Topeka, Kan., submitted a bid of $32.12 million, the lowest of three bids opened Wednesday.

The second project will widen the Johnson Mill Boulevard Interchange on Interstate 540 in Washington County. In addition to widening the boulevard, the project will install new traffic signals and add lanes to the ramps. The low bid of $1.2 million was submitted by APAC-Central Inc. of Fayetteville, one of only two bidders for the work.

The interstate repair program, approved by voters in 2011, is scheduled to repair nearly 450 miles of interstate through 2022.

Three projects totaling 40.5 miles and worth $29.2 million already have been completed. They include sections of I-40 between Dyer and Cravens Creek in Crawford and Franklin counties and between Atkins and Plumerville in Pope and Conway counties and a section of I-55 between I-40 and Jericho in Crittenden County.

Five projects totaling 38.1 miles and worth $78.1 million are under construction. They include work on Interstate 530 between Bingham Road and the Grant County line in Pulaski and Saline counties. The other projects are on I-540, I-40 and I-55.

The commission is scheduled to award contracts on 17 projects totaling about 105 miles and worth an estimated $309 million. Through 2022, another 47 projects totaling 262.8 miles and worth an estimated $624.7 million are scheduled to be awarded contracts.

The interstate repair program was approved by voters in November 2011 as part of a renewal of a $575 million bond program. Voters had approved a similar program more than 10 years earlier. The bonds are repaid with federal money the state receives to maintain the interstates and proceeds from a 4-cent increase in the diesel tax the Legislature approved in 1999.

At a meeting Wednesday of the Highway Commission, Chairman John Ed Regenold of Armorel asked Scott Bennett, director of the Highway and Transportation Department, how many miles of interstate repaired under the earlier initiative were part of the latest initiative.

About 300 miles, Bennett replied. But he noted that by the time contracts are let for many of those miles, it will have been 20 years or more since they were last repaired, which is about how long the work lasts before it needs more repairs.

In earlier statements, Bennett has noted that many of those projects won’t undergo the extensive work the earlier projects had required, because they won’t be in the poor condition that engineers encountered in the earlier initiative.