Roadwork starts tonight on King Expressway

The Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department will start resurfacing a one- mile stretch of the King Expressway between highways 270 and 70 west tonight, AHTD spokesman David Nilles said.

Nilles said the westbound lane of the expressway will be closed from 6 p. m. to 6 a. m., starting today. He said the project will continue through June 30 and be finished “in time to get out of there

before July Fourth traffic comes through there.”

“They will be removing about 2 inches of asphalt; this will go on Saturday night, as well,” he said. “Then, on Monday night, they will do some milling in the eastbound direction. They will also be doing the ramps at the 270 and 70 interchanges.”

Martin Marietta Materials, of Hot Springs, is the $ 603,549 road resurfacing project’s contractor.

Nilles said the roadwork will be done at night when there is less traffic on the busy section of the expressway.

“It’s going to close a lane and that’s such a major roadway that it’s better to do it at night to keep the traffic flow going,” Nilles said.

Nilles said it’s not unusual for work on state highway projects to occur at night.

“Usually, we leave it up to the contractor,” he said. “I think we’re seeing more of it now than we have in the past. It usually has to do with traffic, trying to continue the proper flow of traffic throughout the area without bottling things up too much.”

Nilles said that, to increase safety, the nighttime roadwork site will be illuminated with large spotlights and workers will wear required reflective safety vests.

“It will be lit up pretty well for them,” he said.