Another construction project is scheduled to begin as soon as September on Interstate 40 near West Memphis.
Officials opened an apparent low bid of $38.5 million Tuesday for a project to reconstruct a 12-mile section of the heavily traveled interstate between Shearerville and Arkansas 77 west of West Memphis. The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department said the project is expected to take 18 months.
APAC-Tennessee Inc. of Memphis submitted the apparent low bid. Bid selections aren't final until the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department reviews them for accuracy.
It was the largest of 36 projects worth $59 million on which bids were opened Tuesday. The bid selection was the latest in a string of bid lettings the Highway Department has pared back over concerns about the future of federal transportation funding.
Five projects were pulled in advance of the bid openings, including a Little Rock project to replace a bridge carrying South Arch Street traffic over Union Pacific Railroad tracks between Roosevelt Road and Interstate 30, as well as work on a new interchange for a planned Conway bypass.
In all, the department has pulled $335 million in projects from the bid letting process this year.
A two-month extension of legislation authorizing the federal Highway Trust Fund to continue supporting highway and transit projects expires July 31.
The I-40 project is the second of three that the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department has planned for that route in Crittenden and St. Francis counties.
An agency contractor is completing work on a 2.6-mile section between Arkansas 77 and Interstate 55. Work began on that section in December 2013. A project on a 16.5-mile section of I-40 west from Shearerville is scheduled for early 2017.
All three projects are part of the department's $1.2 billion interstate repair program, which voters approved in 2011 as part of a renewal of authorization of up to a $575 million bond issue.
Other notable projects on which apparent low bids were opened Tuesday included:
• Construction of a traffic circle at Arkansas 351 and Aggie Road in Jonesboro, $1.2 million, awarded to Seagraves Construction Inc. of Maynard.
• Resurfacing of freeway interchange ramps with a high-friction surface treatment to reduce wet-road crashes on various routes in Crawford, Sebastian, Garland, Saline, Pulaski, Faulkner, Craighead and White counties, $1.8 million, awarded to Bettis Asphalt and Construction Inc. of Topeka, Kan.
Metro on 07/22/2015