Dear Mahatma: I do hope you were at the Tuesday conference about the problems on Interstates 55 and 40.
- Cynthia
Dear Cynthia: Inspired by your urging, The Mahatma showed up at the Big Mac Building near the state Capitol as legislators asked the director of the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department about the agency’s response to calamitous weather on March 2 and thereafter.
Easy to forget now, because the jonquils are out and trees are budding, but back then 6 inches of sleet fell on Mississippi County, with lesser amounts elsewhere in Northeast Arkansas, followed by days of subfreezing temperatures.
The result was … did we say calamitous?
Our expert reporter, Noel Oman, wrote at length about the meeting. Hope you read that in the Wednesday newspaper. If not, here’s a one-sentence summary:
It was a good day to not be Scott Bennett, the Highway Department director.
Bennett was prepared with loads of information and data and explanations and lessons learned.
Legislators were generally kind and reasonable, but no doubt were reacting to public opinion by having a hearing.
Our perception is that public opinion matters a lot to the Highway Department. As it should. Because as some guy named Abraham Lincoln once said: “Public opinion in this country is everything.”
The winter has been especially brutal, especially for the people of a Southern state that puts its faith in February sunshine and is shocked by winter storms in March. Judging by the completely nonscientific measurement of letters to the editor, conversations and emails, public opinion is, as the accountants might say, in the red.
Much was made of Missouri’s effort against the storm. Missouri’s highway resources are much greater, Bennett said, with a budget of $2.8 billion and 54,100 employees compared with Arkansas’ budget of $1 billion and 3,600 employees. Missouri also has hundreds of belly plows - the latest in snow removal - to Arkansas’ six.
Our own curiosity is in the growing traffic on Interstate 40 between Memphis and Little Rock.
We asked the Highway Department for data.
In 1983, the average daily traffic on I-40 as counted at North Little Rock was 26,000, and at West Memphis 19,400. In 1993, it was 29,560 and 33,890.
In 2003, it was 41,000 and 38,300. In 2012, the last year for which data are available, 40,000 and 36,000.
The percentage increases from 1983 to 2012 are 54 and 86, respectively, for North Little Rock and West Memphis. Truck traffic now accounts for about 40 percent of the volume in North Little Rock and 50 percent in West Memphis.
Having a third lane in each direction for I-40 came up at Tuesday’s hearing. The Highway Department says building two more lanes would cost in the ballpark of $1 billion.
Would a third lane in each direction have alleviated some of that March misery? Is that a great question, or what?
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 03/15/2014