FORT SMITH — The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department will begin work on a $79 million rehabilitation of a stretch of Interstate 540 in Crawford and Sebastian counties this month that highway officials are calling the largest contract the department has let in its 100-year history.
“This project here is a very historic, monumental opportunity for us to make some vast improvements to Interstate 540 from Highway 22 to the interchange with Interstate 40,” said Emanuel Banks, the department’s assistant chief engineer for operations, at a news conference Monday in Fort Smith.
The project includes resurfacing the seven miles of interstate, rebuilding nine bridges and making improvements to four others.
The I-540 project is one of the first three contracts let under the 2011 Interstate Rehabilitation Program voters approved in November, according to the Highway Department.
Two other projects under the program are slated to begin in the spring, Banks said. One is on Interstate 530 from Bingham Road in Pulaski County through Saline County to the Grant County line at a cost of $13.5 million. The other is on Interstate 40 near Russellville from Mill Creek to Arkansas 331 at a cost of $42.4 million, he said.
District Engineer Joe Shipman said work is scheduled to begin on the I-540 project Jan. 21 subject to the weather and signing of all the contracts with contractor Kiewit Infrastructure South Co.
Kiewit, a nationwide contractor with offices in Little Rock, has said it can finish the project in 153 working days, Shipman said. Considering weather delays, weekends and holidays, he said it will take about 1 1/2 years to complete the work.
With that work schedule, Shipman said, motorists should expect one lane roadways in each direction along the entire seven-mile stretch from the day work begins.
It also means, he said, that motorists should find alternate routes. There are no parallel roads that are obvious alternates to I-540 but Shipman said there are other crossings of the Arkansas River in the area.
“If they plan to use this route, then they need to expect delays,” Shipman warned.
Shipman said that barring minor repairs and routine patching over the years, the roadway has not been rebuilt since it was first opened to traffic in 1967. Plans are to “rubblize” or crush the existing concrete pavement to be used as a base for 12 to 13 inches of asphalt that will form the new roadway.
Bridges to be replaced are the north and southbound bridges at the Arkansas 22 exit, Grand Avenue, Clayton Branch, the Union Pacific Railroad Overpass in Crawford County, and the single Arkansas River Relief bridge just south of the Arkansas River.
Shipman said the bridges will be removed to the foundation and rebuilt from the ground up.
Bridges over Arkansas 64 and 162 in Crawford County will have their decks replaced but the two bridges over 162will be raised to increase the clearance for the traffic beneath it, Shipman said.
There will be no major modifications to the bridge that crosses the Arkansas River, Shipman said.
New signs will be installed and the number of the exits will be reversed with exit numbers increasing from the Oklahoma line to I-40, Shipman said.
Shipman said the highway department will use some methods to assist motorists that have been used in other areas of the state.
One is more extensive use of variable message signs. They will be placed in advance of the work zone on I-40 to alert motorists. They also will be used on U.S. 71 and other routes coming up from the south. Signs also will be posted alerting approaching motorists of the work zone on I-540.
The highway department will maintain 16 cameras along the work area to monitor traffic, Shipman said.
The department will use motorist assistance patrols that will run up and down the work zone, he said. They will provide gas if a motorist runs out, help change flats, call tow trucks or call the Arkansas State Police if further assistance is needed in an effort to keep traffic flowing in the work zone.
State Police Troop H commander Capt. Steve Coleman said the state police would do whatever is necessary to maintain patrols and respond to accidents in the work zone.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 01/08/2013