Arkansas, Texas work on $20M road job

TEXARKANA, Texas — Replacing the concrete pavement of a segment of North State Line Avenue could begin in 2023, state and local transportation officials say.

Coordinating planning between Arkansas and Texas is the most difficult part about advancing the $20 million project, a committee made up of Texarkana, Ark., and Texarkana, Texas, elected officials heard Tuesday.

The comments came during a quarterly meeting of the Joint Texarkana Community Committee, a bi-city panel formed by the Texarkana USA Chamber of Commerce to share information about matters of common interest.

The Arkansas Department of Transportation has a $9.9 million expenditure planned for the project, district engineer Steve Frisbee said. The remainder of the money will come from a combination of Texas Department of Transportation and Texarkana Metropolitan Planning Organization funds.

Texas’ transportation department is seeking $7 million from the Texas Transportation Commission for the project, in which case the Texarkana Metropolitan Planning Organization would provide another $3 million, Texas transportation department district engineer Michael Anderson and Metropolitan Planning Organization Director Rea Donna Jones said.

If the commission decides against funding the project, the Texas transportation department’s Atlanta District will provide $5 million from its rehabilitation budget and the Texarkana Metropolitan Planning Organization will provide the remaining $5 million.

“We’re just waiting to see what pot of money it’s coming out of,” Anderson said.

The start date of 2023 is a “place mark,” and preliminary steps such as engineering studies and environmental reviews, as well as the complexity of coordinating two states’ efforts, could push back the project’s beginning. Once started, the work would take about two years.

A 2.7-mile segment of the avenue south of Interstate 30 will be demolished and rebuilt, the only way to rehabilitate an all-concrete roadway.

The result will not be “necessarily fun” for local drivers, as entering and leaving the avenue will at times be restricted, Anderson said.