A U.S. 70 widening quickens

Map showing where U.S. 70 highway will be widened.
Map showing where U.S. 70 highway will be widened.

Two separate, scheduled projects to widen U.S. 70 to five lanes between Interstate 30 and Hot Springs will be combined into a single project, a move state highway officials say will save time and money.

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THE SENTINEL-RECORD

Larry Dyer (left), who lives near U.S. 70 east of Hot Springs, and William Greenup (right), senior designer at engineering firm Michael Baker International, talk about changes to the highway at a public meeting Thursday at Crossgate Church in Hot Springs.

The projects were combined after crews completed preliminary work on the roadway's 10-mile stretch between Hot Springs and Arkansas 128 in Garland County faster than anticipated, said Danny Straessle, an Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department spokesman.

"The department saw an opportunity to gain savings in time and money," he said.

The route, frequently taken by residents in central Arkansas to travel to Hot Springs, a popular tourist destination, is now primarily limited to two lanes, with passing lanes in some sections. Near I-30, U.S. 70 handles some 14,000 vehicles per day while closer to Hot Springs traffic averages 11,000 a day, according to department statistics.

The announcement comes about one month after the department announced a series of interim safety measures on the route, where crashes claimed 12 lives in 2015.

Work on the project's Garland County section wasn't scheduled to be completed until 2020, according to a department timeline. Now both it and the widening of the 10-mile section between Arkansas 128 and I-30, which runs primarily in Saline County, will be completed in 2018, he said.

Preliminary work included preparing an environmental document to clear the project for construction and preliminary road and bridge designs. Engineers already have identified utilities along the corridor that must be moved. Survey work also has been completed.

One big project, which has a price tag estimated between $68 million and $75 million, rather than two smaller projects, also figures to "attract more attention from contractors and, hopefully, attract more bids," Straessle said.

In addition to more competitive bids, economies of scale also will bring down the cost doing it all at once rather than doing two projects likely by different contractors, he said.

In addition to widening the route to five lanes with shoulders, crews will install a traffic signal at U.S. 70 and Arkansas 128.

Furthermore, completing the work all at once will reduce the time motorists will be traveling through work zones between I-30 and Hot Springs. Highway officials can calculate congestion and traffic delays associated with construction projects as "road user costs."

Moving up and compressing the construction timeline also may save lives.

In the interim, the department announced a series of steps to make the route safer.

Centerline rumble strips, designed to alert drivers when they depart a travel lane, already have been installed on the route.

Workers placed temporary radar speed signs last month, and the Arkansas State Police stepped up enforcement on the highway after Garland County civic and political leaders met with Scott Bennett, the department director, to discuss progress on the widening projects.

The widening project also includes smoothing out some of the curves and reducing the peaks and valleys that now mark the route. The finished project will feature travel lanes the same width as interstate lanes with 7-foot shoulders. The speed limit, as a result, likely will be 60 mph. It is now 55 mph.

"Anytime you change the geometry, you're going to make it safer," Straessle said.

Word of the new, single project came at a public meeting Thursday in Hot Springs that originally was set to discuss widening the 10-mile section between Arkansas 128 and Hot Springs. More than 100 people attended the meeting.

Until now, both projects had been on separate tracks.

The Garland County section was to be widened as part of the department's $1.8 billion Connecting Arkansas Program, which involves widening and other improvements on 35 projects totaling about 200 miles. It is financed primarily by proceeds from a temporary half-percent statewide sales tax voters approved in 2012. The tax is to expire in 2023.

The section between I-30 and Arkansas 128 was part of the Highway Department's regularly apportioned federal and state money under the department's state transportation improvement plan.

The combined project will be constructed using both sources of funding, Straessle said.

A Section on 01/29/2016

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