Work is nearing completion on new exit ramps for the Interstate 430/Interstate 30 interchange in Little Rock, the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department said Monday.
The work, part of a $13.4 million contract by McGeorge Contracting Co. Inc. of Pine Bluff, includes ramps leading to the I-30 frontage road to serve Otter Creek Road and Mabelvale West Road near Bass Pro Shops and other developments in the area.
The new ramps will be opened sometime this week or next, the agency said in a news release.
"We want drivers to be aware of these upcoming changes," Scott Bennett, the agency director, said in the release.
The ramps will involve new traffic patterns that will require earlier decisions for motorists approaching the interchange from I-430 south and I-30 west, said Danny Straessle, a department spokesman.
Once the new ramps open, motorists traveling from those directions who want to take what is now Exit 128 for Otter Creek Road or Mabelvale West Road will have to exit before they reach the interchange and not after, as is the case now, Straessle said.
The existing Exit 128 will be closed once the new ramps are opened to traffic, so if motorists miss the new ramps, they will have to travel west on I-30 to Alexander Road, also called Arkansas 111, at the Saline County line before they will be able to turn around.
"Hopefully, it doesn't take long to figure out the changes," Straessle said.
The completion of the work comes after the busy Thanksgiving holiday, which is a big weekend for shoppers. But Tommy Hodges, who developed the Gateway Town Center that includes the Bass Pro Shops outdoors store, said it didn't matter whether the new ramps opened before or after the holiday.
"I'm happy to see them open," Hodges said Monday. "They've done a great job. I think it's going to be a big improvement for the traffic on 430."
The work was originally part of a larger project that also included adding another lane from I-430 south to I-30 west. But the department rejected two bids contractors submitted in June as too high and decided to make the ramp work a separate project.
The apparent low bid on the original I-430/I-30 interchange project was submitted by Kiewit Infrastructure South Co. of Fort Worth.
Its bid for the project at $43.7 million was higher than the only other bid submitted, $37.6 million by McGeorge Contracting. However, Kiewit said it could do the project in 366 days, 51 fewer days than McGeorge.
Given that tens of thousands of motorists use the interchange daily, factors such as the project's burden on commuters are considered when reviewing bids on projects.
A date hasn't been set to award a contract for the remaining work, Straessle said. Department engineers want to evaluate the effect of the latest work "and then determine when we will finish the rest of it."
Metro on 12/02/2014