Contractor tackles extension of road through Spa City

HOT SPRINGS — The contractor awarded the $75.15 million project extending the Martin Luther King Jr. Expressway is on site, working on the southern end of the more than 5-mile east-west corridor connecting the U.S. 70 east interchange to the junction of Arkansas 5 and Arkansas 7, according to the Arkansas Department of Transportation.

The junction end of the project will tie into the 4.17-mile widening of upper Park Avenue, converging into a 200-foot wide roundabout connecting Park Avenue, the expressway and Arkansas 7 north. The agency said the Park Avenue project will be put out for bid later this year.

Hot Springs awarded a $1.95 million contract in December to Diamond Construction Co. to relocate city utilities out of the expanded right of way.

The Transportation Department will reimburse the city for $1.18 million of the contract, the cost of relocating utilities that are outside of the state’s existing Park Avenue right of way.

The department said it’s in possession of 54 of the 62 rightof-way pieces needed for the two-lane expressway extension. It has title to an unbroken section of corridor from the U.S. 70 east interchange to Promise Land Drive, a private road winding around a mountain the department has said will need to be excavated.

Several pieces between Promise Land and Mill Creek Road remain outstanding. A contiguous corridor of more than 12 acres picks back up near Mill Creek, heading north along Denise Lane.

The state condemned a 5-acre piece bordering the junction of Arkansas 5 and Arkansas 7 in December. The owner is challenging the $44,750 placed in the court’s registry as just compensation for the property. Almost 40 acres acquired last week for $167,575 border the 5-acre parcel abutting the junction. Corridor pieces between the 40 acres acquired last week and Denise Lane remain outstanding.

The Arkansas Department of Agriculture acquired hundreds of acres east and west of the corridor to protect the recharge area that captures and conveys water to the thermal springs in Hot Springs National Park, which is west of the expressway extension. Clauses included in the deeds prohibit disturbances other than what is needed to preserve the land’s health and sustainability.

A report approved by the Federal Highway Administration last year said 189 acres of the 23,000-acre recharge area are inside the corridor for the extension.

Conservation areas the Agriculture Department acquired include elevations geologists have said are required for runoff to reach the park’s thermal springs via ground fractures and faults in the recharge zone. Runoff entering at elevations lower than 660 feet doesn’t have the hydraulic force to reach the depths where it’s heated to 170 degrees before rising to the surface, geologists have said.

The state condemned parcels at 4563 Park Ave. and 100 Arkansas 7 north for the roundabout. The Park Avenue property owner and mortgage holder agreed in January to the $389,400 price the state offered in December. The state deposited $537,600 into the court’s registry for the Arkansas 7 north property.

Garland County contributed $30 million to the expressway project from the $54.6 million bond issue voters approved in a 2016 special election.