Projects pile up

The Connecting Arkansas Program recently marked the halfway point in its 10-year highway improvement program. Voters approved a constitutional amendment and passed a half-cent sales tax in 2012 to construct 36 projects, selected by the highway department, in 19 corridors around the state.

Eleven projects have been completed and six are under construction, equaling more than 85 miles of highway and interstate improvements. Another eight projects with 60 miles of widening or new-alignment construction are scheduled for bid openings later this year. So far, about $431 million has been spent on the projects.

These are the larger completed and ongoing projects:

■ I-49. Widened 15 miles of interstate to six lanes from Fayetteville to Bentonville.

■ Bella Vista Bypass. Built about 12 miles of two-lane highway from Arkansas 34 east to I-49 completed in 2017. Two more lanes are currently under construction.

■ U.S. Highway 412 Bypass. Completed 4.5 miles of four-lane divided highway in Springdale in April.

■ I-40. Widened 5.1 miles to six lanes from Conway to Little Rock. Opened in 2016.

■ U.S. 70. Straightened curves and flattened hills on 18 miles between I-30 and Hot Springs.

■ U.S. 64. Widened 5.5 miles to four lanes east of Earle in Crittenden County. Opened in June.

■ U.S. 64. Widened 3 miles to four lanes between Conway and Beebe in White County. Opened in 2017.

■ Monette Bypass. A 3.2-mile four-lane bypass north of Monette in Craighead County opened in November 2017.

■ U.S. 65. Widening 4.5 miles through Valley Springs in Boone County.

■ I-630. Widening 2.2 miles between Baptist Hospital and University Avenue in Pulaski County.

■ U.S. 67. Widening 4.6 miles between Jacksonville and Cabot.

■ U.S. 167. Widening 11 miles between Hampton and Fordyce in Calhoun County.

■ Arkansas 18. Widening 1.8 miles east of Manila in Mississippi County.