Cities cough up project funds for road projects

The construction on a new interchange in Maumelle joins a growing trend in central Arkansas where cities provide the funds for road projects in an effort to see them completed quickly, officials said.

The $14.6 million project to build a new Interstate 40 interchange at Maumelle has been sought for more than 20 years, outgoing Mayor Michael Watson said. Watson and other Maumelle residents and officials were joined Monday at the project site by Gov. Asa Hutchinson and other state officials to celebrate the start of construction.

Talk of a new interchange began in 1996 when the city’s population was about 8,100, according to U.S. Census figures. Maumelle now boasts 18,900 residents.

The project’s delay was caused by the lack of funding options, Watson said.

“I went to [Washington] D.C. several times to try to receive funding,” Watson said. “I got denied multiple times. I remember I got denied for grants one time because we didn’t have enough fatalities on Maumelle Boulevard.”

It wasn’t until the residents of Maumelle decided to institute a one-half percent temporary sales tax and fund 75 percent of the project that things started to see movement, Watson said.

“Thanks to local funding this interchange is finally happening,” Hutchinson said. “Maumelle has shown everyone how it is done.”

J.R. Davis, a spokesman for the governor’s office, said Hutchinson’s comments meant that the funding model Maumelle used is something the central Arkansas region could implement for future projects.

“Northwest Arkansas has been doing things the way Maumelle just did and the governor wanted to commend them on their efforts,” Davis said.

Danny Straessle, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation, said if a city can bring money to the table, the project is likely to get done.

“Cities who are able to come up with local funding are nine times out of 10 going to see that project move forward,” Straessle said.

Casey Covington, deputy director for Metroplan, said this practice is becoming increasingly common.

“Partnering is a method used by the local jurisdictions to accelerate the construction of high priority projects,” Covington said.

Straessle said the Maumelle interchange wasn’t on the top of their list of projects to get done, but the financial support from the city gave the project higher priority.

“The projects are usually a 80-to-20 match with the federal government and sometimes even the 20 can be difficult to match for us,” Straessle said. “But if we have municipalities help with the match then it changes things.”

Veronica Smith-Creer, Mayor-elect of El Dorado, a city similar to Maumelle with an expectation of growth in the coming years, said partnering is an approach her city will use on new road projects.

“We will also be using our own funds in partnership for these projects,” Creer said.

Tab Townsell, executive director of Metroplan, said partnering is a relatively new trend in central Arkansas, and not all cities are partnering just yet.

“It has been going on longer and more extensively in Northwest Arkansas where population growth rates have been faster,” Townsell said.

Covington said the Bryant entrance and exit ramps to Interstate 30, the Arkansas 25 relocation and the Baker Mills Parkway in Conway, the Arkansas 38 relocation and interchange in Cabot and the Broadway Bridge project in Pulaski County were all partnering projects in the region.

There are also partnering projects planned for an Arkansas 89 railroad overpass and relocation in Mayflower, the Asher and University avenues and Colonel Glenn Road intersection in Little Rock and the Rodney Parham/Interstate 430 ramps in Little Rock, Covington said.

Mark Hayes, executive director with the Arkansas Municipal League, said he imagines the 75 percent that Maumelle put up will probably be the exception instead of the rule.