Residents briefed on widening I-630 plan

State eases fear, says homes stay

Preliminary design maps show that no homes will be affected by the proposed widening of a 2.5-mile section of Interstate 630 between Baptist Health Medical Center and South University Avenue in Little Rock.

The widening of the interstate to four lanes from three was the subject of a public meeting that the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department held Tuesday evening and that attracted more than 150 people who live in neighborhoods abutting both sides of the busy corridor.

“Some people imagined the worst, that they were going to take their houses,” said Mary-Julia Hill, president of the Briarwood Area Neighborhood Association.

In addition to Briarwood, the neighborhood association represents seven other subdivisions lining the north side of I-630. Together the areas account for 847 single-family homes.

“But even the walking path isn’t going to be disturbed. That’s wonderful,” Hill said.

However, the increased traffic noise that will accompany the widening is a concern for Hill and other residents who attended the meeting in the fellowship hall of Christ Lutheran Church at 315 S. Hughes St.

Sandra McFadden, a retiree who has had a home for 32 years in the University Park subdivision on the south side of the interstate, said she has always heard the noise. She said she has gotten used to the current noise level, thanks in part to the installation of double windows in her home, but she fears what will happen if that noise level increases.

“There is a fear they won’t fix it,” said Eleanor

Coleman, the president of the University Park Neighborhood Association.

How the widening project will affect noise levels in the neighborhoods is the subject of a study that is expected to be completed within a month, said Garver Engineers executive Jerry Holder, who is the manager of the Highway Department’s $1.8 billion highway construction program. The I-630 project is a part of that program.

If the study recommends noise barriers for one or more neighborhoods, program personnel will meet with the affected neighborhoods and ask them whether they want the noise barriers, he said. If they do want them, the barriers will be installed as part of the project.

Most people who submitted written comments at the meeting said the widening is needed.

At the time that the project is scheduled to be under construction — in 2017 — planners estimate that 116,000 vehicles will be traveling the route daily. By 2037, about 138,000 vehicles are expected to travel the segment every day.

Holder said the highway engineer’s rule of thumb is that each interstate lane can handle 20,000 vehicles per day if no entrance ramps or exit ramps are on the route. That is not the case on the segment in question, which has two major entrance and exit ramps at John Barrow Road and at Mississippi Avenue and North Rodney Parham Road.

“When you get to 138,000, there’s no way six lanes can handle that,” Holder said.

The project is expected to cost between $30 million and $35 million and take two years to complete. It is one of 35 projects covering 200 miles in the highway construction initiative that the department has dubbed its Connecting Arkansas Program and is one of the largest the agency has ever undertaken.

The program is financed in part by a 0.5 percent state sales tax, which voters approved in 2012. The increase is in place for 10 years. Part of the money raised by the tax is going to street and road projects in cities and counties.

The Connecting Arkansas Program is designed to help connect cities, increase highway capacity, ease congestion, make the routes that are part of the project safer and support economic development.

In addition to adding a lane in each direction, the proposed design of the I-630 segment seeks to “improve the geometry to make it smoother and safer,” Holder said.

He pointed to a new entrance ramp onto I-630 west from John Barrow Road, which aligns it better with the curve of the interstate. It also provides vehicles entering the interstate a longer acceleration lane than what’s there now.

The project also will add an auxiliary lane in both directions between Rodney Parham Road and South Mississippi Street.

Bridges over Rock Creek and Kanis Park will be replaced.

What the project won’t do is replace the basketball courts and a volleyball court that are now under the interstate, which was a concern for some residents who submitted written comments at the meeting.

“It’s very important for our kids to keep the park,” one resident wrote. Another added that the park is “well-used.”

The Highway Department officially granted the city the use of that property, Holder said, so the basketball and volleyball courts belong to the city. Because that’s city property, the city will have to decide whether to replace the courts and will pay for those replacements, he said.

Some of the people at the meeting said they attended because of fliers that appeared in their neighborhoods. The fliers warned of dire consequences of the project, including the removal of the bicycle and pedestrian path that runs along the north side of the interstate. The flier claims were false.

“We were mad,” said Matt Bridges of his and his wife’s reaction to the flier claims. The couple have lived on Ouachita Drive for six years. The street is between the bike path and the interstate. The couple regularly run on the path.

“They said they were taking out the trail,” Bridges said of the fliers. “It’s not going to happen.”

Bridges said the couple were glad they attended the meeting. “It was very beneficial.

“Hopefully, we’ll get a sound wall.”