LITTLE ROCK — Southbound traffic in the vicinity of the Interstate 430/630 interchange will be disrupted for a month or more with a new southbound exit to I-630, narrower main lanes and restricted speeds to accommodate the next stage of construction on the interchange-improvement project.
The worst of the havoc will occur Wednesday when contractors on the $124 million project shift the I-430 main lanes between West Markham Street and I-630 over 18 to 21 hours beginning at 9 a.m. that day.
A spokesman for the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department could not rule out the possibility that drivers will encounter a Little Rock version of “Carmageddon,” the name of a video game and the term coined for recent projects on congested Southern California highways.
“It very well could be,” spokesman Glenn Bolick said. “We are doing our best to inform people not to even try it.”
All southbound I-430 lanes will be affected as a combination of lane closures involving one to two lanes will occur over that 18- to 21-hour period. At least one southbound lane and all northbound lanes will remain open at all times during this shift, the department said.
“Safety is always the No. 1 concern for both the workers and the motorists,” Scott Bennett, the department’s director, said in a prepared statement, noting the agency waited until most area schools had closed for the summer before initiating this phase. “We urge motorists that use southbound I-430 near the interchange to find another route and just stay away on [Wednesday] so workers can transition the work area quicker and safer.”
The most significant change will be a relocated exit for those who travel I-430 south and then east on I-630 or west on Financial Center Parkway, the department said.
The new exit will be located south of its present location.
The first southbound exit will remain in the current location, but will be limited to traffic exiting to Markham, the department said.
The second exit will be a new off-ramp location for I-630 east and Financial Center Parkway west traffic. Message boards will be in place to help direct motorists.
The new traffic configuration will remain in place approximately four to five weeks, according to the department. The three southbound lanes into the interchange will remain after the transition, but lane widths will be narrower. The posted speed limit will remain at 55 mph, but the department will also place signs recommending drivers proceed through the area at 40 mph, Bolick said.
The lane shift will allow workers to build a pier to support the steel beams that are being used on the new flyover that will take traffic from I-430 south to I-630 east, Bolick said.
“That pier needs to be in those southbound lanes” now used as an exit ramp for I-430 southbound traffic wanting to go east on I-630, he said.
The overall project, dubbed the “Big Rock Interchange” after workers uncovered a distinctive rock formation weighing roughly 5 million pounds in the interchange’s southeast quadrant between Baptist Health Medical Center and I-430, is designed to relieve congestion among the roughly 200,000 vehicles that negotiate the interchange daily and the anticipated 300,000 vehicles that will travel the interchange in 20 years, according to department planners.
The interchange opened in 1977 when no road extended west beyond the point where I-630 met South Shackleford Road.
Work on the project began in 2009. It is expected to continue through 2014.
“Motorists will see significant progress in construction throughout the summer,” Bennett said.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 05/28/2012