LITTLE ROCK — A longtime crash-prone location on busy Cantrell Road near downtown Little Rock is in line for nearly a half-million dollars in improvements.
The Arkansas Highway Commission last week awarded a $493,467.75 contract to Redstone Construction Group Inc. of Little Rock to realign the road to enhance safety at the Union Pacific arch bridge just west of North Cross Street. A total of five companies expressed interest in the project, but Redstone was the only company to submit a bid.
The project was one of 51 on which the commission last week tentatively awarded contracts totaling $93,202,870.08. The other projects include a $32.1 million contract to pave part of the Interstate 530 connector in Lincoln County and a $10 million contract to resurface Interstate 30 from Sevier Street to U.S. 70 in Benton.
The contracts won’t become final until state highway officials review them for accuracy, probably by today.
The work on Cantrell Road will reduce the sharpness of a curve on the west side of the bridge, said David Nilles, a spokesman for the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department. The work will begin in about a month and will be completed by summer, he said.
A crash analysis performed in 2007 covering the years 2003 through 2005 found 29 crashes occurred in a one-tenth-mile section on the west side of the bridge, said Randy Ort, a department spokesman. More telling, he said, was that the crash rate per million miles traveled was 9.16, which was nearly double the statewide average of 4.83 crashes per million vehicle miles traveled.
Of the crashes the study documented, 17, or 59 percent, involved a vehicle leaving the road and hitting a fixed object, Ort said. “That’s indicative of a curve,” he said.
Since the crash analysis was performed, the department put in some enhanced signs to provide more warnings to drivers approaching the curve, Ort said.
The crash analysis made the project eligible for federal safety money, which will cover 90 percent of the project’s cost, Nilles said. State money will be used to pay for the remaining 10 percent, he said.
About 29,000 vehicles a day travel on that part of Cantrell, according to the department’s 2010 average daily vehicle traffic estimates, the latest estimates available.
The I-530 connector is a proposed 38-mile route linking I-530 in Pine Bluff with the future Interstate 69 near Wilmar in Drew County. It is envisioned as a four-lane interstate-quality road but is being built as a two-lane road for now.
The contract, tentatively awarded to Graves and Associates Inc. of Pine Bluff last week, will pave 7.75 miles,build a connector for Arkansas 11 and U.S. 425 in Lincoln County, and make other improvements. Once completed, a total of 27.5 miles of the route will be paved, including 23 miles from Pine Bluff south and 4.5 miles on the south end, Ort said.
To date, $175 million has been spent on the project so far, he said. The 10.5-mile gap will cost $50 million or $60 million to build. Adding two more lanes and interchanges will cost another $350 million, Ort said.
Martin Marietta Materials Inc. of Hot Springs was the apparent low bidder on the I-30 resurfacing project, which is designed to extend the life of the pavement until it is replaced, Ort said.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 03/26/2012