Judge sets June 1 deadline on 30 Crossing update

LITTLE ROCK — U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr. has given federal and state transportation officials until June 1 to provide an accounting of their activities associated with the 30 Crossing project since he granted a Dec. 30 stay in a lawsuit challenging the nearly $1 billion project.

Moody’s decision came after he held a telephone conference with attorneys in the lawsuit, according to clerk’s minutes filed in the case online.

Earlier this month, the plaintiffs in the case sought the Thursday-granted order after the Arkansas Department of Transportation asked Metroplan, the long-range transportation planning agency for Central Arkansas, to approve adding $350 million to the project to overhaul the Interstate 30 corridor through Little Rock and North Little Rock.

The project, known as 30

Crossing, includes replacing the I-30 bridge over the Arkansas River.

The requested additional money would raise to $981.7 million the total that the department has committed to the project.

The department originally identified $631.7 million that would be available, but the joint venture that was selected to complete the project’s design and construction put the total price tag at nearly $1 billion. At that point, the department said the project would be built in phases.

If Metroplan amends its transportation improvement plan to allow it and voters approve a highway funding issue in November, that could allow all of the project to be built at once.

In the Nov. 3 general election, Arkansans will vote on Issue 1, a proposal to make permanent a half-percent statewide sales tax devoted to road work. In 2012, voters approved the tax for 10 years.

The public comment period on amending Metroplan’s transportation improvement plan ended Monday.

Metroplan received a total of 51 comments on the proposed amendment, said Casey Covington, the agency’s deputy director. Thirty-one comments were against the amendment, 18 were for it and two were labeled as “other.”

The lawsuit is seeking to stop the project until a more rigorous review of its impact can be conducted.

A coalition of area neighborhood groups and residents filed the lawsuit in May 2019. The defendants are the Arkansas Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration.

The department was granted a stay in the lawsuit to allow the department to update the federally approved environmental assessment for the project if the project had to be built in stages.