Road study nears end
The environmental reassessment for the estimated $60 million King Expressway extension is nearing the halfway marker, the Arkansas Department of Transportation informed Garland County earlier this month.
The reassessment for the 5.16-mile, two-lane extension connecting the Highway 70 east interchange to the junction of highways 5 and 7 is 45 percent
complete. James Montgomery, president of B& F Engineering Inc., said the study is expected to be completed by next summer.
The county contracted B & F to coordinate with the state on the extension, which the county is providing $30 million for from the $54.6 million bond issue voters approved last summer. The five-eighths cent sales tax that businesses began collecting July 1 is securing the bonds.
The county has released $2 million in bond proceeds to partner with the state on the reassessment and will release another $3 million to complete the $10 million study. The county’s $25 million share of the construction costs will be released when construction begins, which the transportation department has said could start as early as 2019.
The reassessment is a continuation of the 2005 environmental study for the four-lane divided highway initially planned for the extension. It was shelved after thermal water was found in a private well in the Bratton Drive area. A U.S. Geological Survey study was commissioned subsequent to the discovery to determine if the well was connected to Hot Springs National Park’s thermal water system.
The state has said the reassessment will include a 2009 USGS study that deemed the well was not associated with the national park’s thermal water system.
The transportation department said four drilling sites to monitor groundwater along the extension’s proposed route have been identified, joining the six existing wells from the 2005 study. Montgomery said samples will be taken from the sites before construction begins and compared to samples collected during and after construction to determine if the project has affected the recharge zone for the thermal springs.
The precise footprint of the recharge zone, which replenishes the thermal springs, is unknown, but the USGS has outlined a conceptual area that includes the higher elevations north, northeast, west and southwest of Hot Springs Mountain. The discharge zone is on the mountain’s western slope.
Montgomery said he does not expect the extension’s final alignment to deviate significantly from the proposed route, allowing right of way acquisition to begin as early as next year. Promise Land Drive and Mill Creek Road have been identified as potential interchanges.
The state’s cost analysis comparison of a tunneling or cut-andfill method through one of several ridgelines the proposed route traverses is 60 percent complete. The overall roadway design is 25 percent complete.
• County Judge Rick Davis has said the Exchange Street Parking Plaza project Hot Springs hoped to fund with its share of bond proceeds is not consistent with ballot language voters approved in last summer’s special election.
The city had asked to direct part of its $7.3 million population-based share toward the
35-percent match provision in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration Agency grant it’s seeking. The grant would expand the parking plaza, allow access from Central Avenue and pay for five sidewalk bump-outs downtown.
In addition to coordinating with the transportation department on the expressway extension, B& F was contracted by the county to evaluate projects the county’s four incorporated areas submit for funding from their respective shares of the bond proceeds. B& F determines if the submissions comply with proper bid procedures and ballot language that stipulated the capital improvement bonds would pay for road, street, bridge and sidewalk improvements.
“It has to meet the criteria of the referendum,” Davis said earlier this year. “The county is responsible for ensuring the money is spent in the way we told voters it would be spent.”
The city is using almost $1 million from its per capita allotment to pay for 2017 overlay projects covering more than 5 miles of city streets.
Montgomery said Mountain Pine is using part of its $160,000 allotment to purchase new street signs, and that Fountain Lake plans to use part of its $104,000 share for overlay projects.
B& F was also contracted to manage projects the county is planning to fund with its $12.3 million share of bond proceeds. Montgomery said bids received Wednesday for the first paving package the county let came in at about $2.3 million, or 15 percent more than the $2 million the county had expected.
The package will pave about 7 miles of county roads with a hot-mix overlay and includes drainage, pipe replacement and widening the roads to 22 feet. The package comprises Cedar Glades Road from Highway 227 to Wildcat Road, Turkey Trot Lane from Cedar Glades Road to Blacksnake Road, Blacksnake from Turkey Trot to Highway 227 and the entire length of Trooper Drive in Mid-America Industrial Park.
• The county and Hot Springs have agreed to each contribute
$50,000 from their per capita shares toward a study the transportation department has proposed for the Airport Road, Albert Pike, Higdon Ferry and Central Avenue expressway interchanges.
The transportation department said the study, which is expected to cost about $500,000, would help determine options for improving congestion and motorist and pedestrian safety.
The interlocal agreements that established the per capita shares of the $20 million dedicated to projects other than the expressway extension also call for the county and city to potentially share half the cost for improvements to the Airport Road interchange.