BRYANT -- Bryant officials took a preliminary step Tuesday evening to enact a plan that would partly use city funds to construct on- and off-ramps along Interstate 30 at the Raymar Road overpass.
During a special meeting, the Bryant City Council approved city staff preparing a plan that would refinance city franchise fee bonds with funds being used to build interstate access and exit ramps at the existing Raymar Road overpass.
The council also authorized city staff to write a proposal and proposed contract for the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department showing where the new ramps would be built with city funds, but the city would receive some reimbursement from the department.
The new I-30 ramps would be between the Alexander Road exit at mile marker 126 and the Reynolds Road exit at mile marker 123.
The interchange would ease congestion and is a "transportation need" for the city, Mayor Jill Dabbs said. The Reynolds Road interchange experiences a "ton of congestion," and the new interchange would alleviate traffic coming out of the northern part of Bryant, she said.
The interchange could also spur economic development in the city, Dabbs said.
"Economic development follows good transportation," she said. "When transportation needs are met, economic development does follow."
The city plans on having the proposed contract for the state Highway Department ready for approval at the City Council's meeting next Tuesday.
Department spokesman Danny Straessle said the agency has been corresponding with city officials for about two years over the proposed interchange. The approximately $4 million project is "under consideration" for inclusion in the state's new Statewide Transportation Improvement Program for the years 2016-19 but isn't a "done deal," he said.
"We've communicated to the city that we are willing to consider this project," Straessle said.
The department is approached with partnership proposals like this "all the time," Straessle said.
A new Sixth Street overpass being constructed along Interstate 40 in Conway is a partnership between that city and the state Highway Department. Conway is funding the overpass's entire cost and administering the project with oversight from the department.
In April 2013, Cabot voters approved refinancing a bond issue, with $9.5 million going toward the cost of constructing a proposed U.S. 67/167 interchange in the northern part of that city. The interchange's estimated cost in 2013 was about $21 million, and the department would pay the rest.
State Desk on 07/22/2015