Correction: A project to widen a segment of Interstate 30 to 10 lanes would begin at Interstate 530 in Little Rock. I-530 was misnamed in this article.
For the first time, the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department will use an alternative method of construction on a project to widen a congested segment of Interstate 30 that includes a bridge over the Arkansas River between Little Rock and North Little Rock.
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Highway officials believe the project is an ideal one to apply the “design-build” method, which allows designers and contractors to collaborate at the same time to engineer and construct projects. Backers of the method say it can be a quicker and less-expensive process than the traditional way projects are handled, which is to design the project first and then award the construction contract to the lowest bidder.
Under the alternate method, “you allow designers and contractors to get together to see who can come up with a more innovative or cost-effective way to build it that we might not normally do without the benefit of contractors being on the team,” department Director Scott Bennett said Wednesday. “Because of the size and complexity of the project, ‘design-build’ would give us some better options we might not come up with in a … ‘design-bid build’ process.”
Also by using the “design-build” method, the department isn’t “locked into what the winning team proposes,” he said. “You also have the option for the winning team to cobble together options from other proposals. You may get the best team, but another team may submit a good idea.
“Whatever ideas they submit, we have the right to use them in the final product.”
Bennett also said the method allows construction to begin before the final design is ready, which will allow the team to “change the final design based on what happened out in the field.”
The design-build method is permitted under a 2013 state law. Act 579 is limited to projects under a voter-approved program to build four-lane highways and ease congestion on other routes. The $1.8 billion program is financed by a temporary 0.5 percent statewide sales tax that will be in place for the next 10 years. Voters approved the constitutional amendment almost a year ago.
The act replaces a 10-yearold law that was about to expire, Act 460 of 2003. That law gave the state Highway Commission the authority to award contracts on no more than two design-build projects worth at least $50 million in total cost, which includes preliminary engineering, design and acquiring right of way, and construction.
The department identified six potential projects that could have exceeded $50 million in total costs, but never built a project under the old law.
Even using the method, the I-30 corridor project will be expensive. The initial price range to widen the corridor to 10 lanes between Interstate 540 in Little Rock and Interstate 40 in North Little Rock, including the I-30 bridge, has been pegged at $325 million,which only included construction costs.
Bennett on Wednesday spoke of a project cost in the range of $400 million, which would include some preliminary engineering and other nonconstruction costs. But he said the department won’t have an accurate cost estimate until the project is much closer to development.
The project is tentatively scheduled to be awarded a contract in early 2018, but that date could be moved up using the alternate construction method.
The I-30 bridge, which carries 124,000 vehicles a day, was constructed in 1958 and cost $5.5 million to build.
The project is one of 31 to widen and improve about 200 miles of interstates and highways under what the department has dubbed the Connecting Arkansas Program, which the department says is the largest road-construction program it has ever undertaken.
The first three projects are scheduled to be awarded next year. The projects include widening 5.6 miles of Interstate 40 between Interstate 430 and Arkansas 365 for an estimated $21 million; building a 6.2-mile section of the Bella Vista Bypass between U.S. 71B and Arkansas 72 South for an estimated $30 million; and widening U.S. 412 between Interstate 540 and Arkansas 112 for $125 million.
State highway officials reported that sales-tax collections for the new program have lagged initial estimates. The state has collected $32,591,823.60 since July, or $1,148,176.40 less than projected. The actual collections are about 3.5 percent less than the $33,740,000 the department expected to collect.
“I’m not sure it’s enough to identify a trend, but it’s enough to cause a concern,” Bennett told commissioners meeting in Little Rock on Wednesday, adding that if the lag continued, the department might have to reduce the scope of some projects or, in the words of commission Chairman John Ed Regenold of Amorel, “shave” entire projects from the program.
Also Wednesday, the Highway Commission’s second bond sale for the renewal of its interstate repair program yielded a true-interest cost of 2.153 percent.
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC’s bid narrowly bested the 2.157 percent bid offered by Bank of America Merrill Lynch on the bond sale, which totaled about $171.5 million.
Six bids were submitted and opened Tuesday, the commission’s financial advisers said.
The commission originally was seeking to sell about $200 million in bonds but only had to sell the smaller amount because J.P. Morgan Securities was willing to offer a $29.2 million premium as part of its bid.
Under the interstate repair program, the state Highway and Transportation Department expects to work on 74 projects covering 448 miles of interstate at an estimated cost of $1.2 billion. Voters approved the renewal of a 1999 interstate repair program in November 2011.
Two projects totaling 21.9 miles and worth $16.8 million already have been completed under the program: a section of Interstate 55 from I-40 to Jericho in northeast Arkansas and a section of I-40 from Dyer to Cravens Creek in Crawford and Franklin counties.
Six more projects on 56.7 miles of interstate and totaling $228 million are under construction. They include single projects on I-55, two projects on I-540 and three projects on I-40.
The department on Wednesday also unveiled a comprehensive website devoted to giving motorists information on traveling around the road projects. Department officials said they want to encourage motorists to check the website - IDriveArkansas.com - to see which projects they might encounter, and for real-time traffic delays and real-time weather conditions. The agency expects to add more features soon.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 10/31/2013