Highway 70 east project nears halfway mark
The Highway 70 east widening project is nearing the halfway mark, the Arkansas Department of Transportation said earlier this week.
Information Josh Walker, ADOT’s District 6 Engineer, presented at Tuesday’s Tri-Lakes Metropolitan Planning Organization Technical Committee meeting showed the project was 44 percent complete, with a Feb. 20 estimated completion date.
The percentage is based on money spent from the $78.5 million contract McGeorge Contracting Co. of Little Rock was awarded to widen the 17.8-mile section from Hot Springs to Interstate 30 to four travel lanes and one turn lane. Walker told the committee construction was far enough along on some bridges to support decking, or the actual road surface.
He said clearing and drainage work is ongoing, and two plants are running to keep up with the demand for asphalt.
“They’ve put a lot of asphalt out there,” he told the committee.
The project is funded by the Connecting Arkansas Program that’s supported by the half-cent state sales tax voters approved in 2012. The tax will raise $1.8 billion for improvements to 200
miles of highways and interstates before it sunsets at the end of 2022.
Traffic signal
Hot Springs Director of Public Works Denny McPhate told the committee construction of Pac Placit Street is 40 percent complete, with drainage work expected to be finished this week.
The street will enable the installation of a traffic signal at Airport Road and West St. Louis Street, which McPhate said is one of the city’s most dangerous intersections.
“It probably has the highest accident and fatality rate in the city,” he told the committee.
McPhate said accidents are most frequent during morning rush hour, when traffic turning right onto Albert Pike Road from Airport backs up to the West St. Louis intersection. The congestion obstructs the views of drivers exiting West St. Louis and can cause accidents if they don’t check the inside lane of Airport, McPhate said.
Pac Placit will serve as the west end of a four-way signalized intersection, allowing access into and out of the Walmart-anchored shopping center on Albert Pike via what was part of the Kentucky Fried Chicken parking lot at 114 Airport.
The city earlier this year accepted 40 feet of right of way for the road from the family limited partnership that owns the shopping center. Square One Construction was awarded the $96,000 Pac Placit contract.
McPhate said the street will be barricaded until the signal is installed, which, he said, could happen by next summer.
Highway 7 south
Walker said the 12th Annual Hot Springs Open Motorcycle Rally Sept. 7-9 has postponed the 1.72-mile widening of Highway 7 south from the south shore bridge over Lake Hamilton to the Highway 290 junction. He said construction is expected to begin later in September.
The status report he presented Tuesday said the $10.7 million project awarded to Kiewit Corp. of Nebraska has an estimated completion date of next May.
City Engineer Gary Carnahan said relocation of utilities from the expanded right of way is ongoing. Work began near the Highway 290 junction and is progressing north, Carnahan said, noting the relocation project has reached the Amity Road area.
The city budgeted $3.3 million this year to move water and sewer lines from the expanded right of way.
Highway 5
Shoulder widening and selected section overlays on Highway 5 from the Highway 128 junction to Benton are two-thirds complete, with $2.4 million remaining in the $7.8 million contract Redstone Construction Group of Little Rock was awarded.
Walker told the committee paving has been completed on the selected sections of the 21.25-mile project. Shoulder and driveway work is ongoing. The status report showed next July as the estimated completion date.
The Transportation Department has a subsequent project planned to redesign curves and remove trees from the Garland-Saline county line to Benton.