Dear Mahatma: Be patient on Interstate 30, he says. Live long to see fix, he says. How about finding out when will the total repaving of Cantrell Road be done? This route runs through the entire city, yet it appears no one in state government gives two cents. -- Beyond Inquisitive
Dear Beyond: Your question and comment has been edited for space, as all are. We also took out the multiple question marks and exclamation points, and down-cased. We understand that writing in all capital letters conveys great emotion.
Cantrell Road is also Arkansas 10, and so is under the jurisdiction of the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department. The agency knows that Cantrell is heavily traveled. Average daily traffic counts range from 8,200 out west to 32,000 near downtown. Thirty-two thousand is a lot of traffic.
Since your beef is fundamentally with the Highway Department -- also we sense you think The Mahatma is a goober -- we asked the agency to respond. It said it really does give two cents.
• Approximately a mile of Cantrell has been widened from Mississippi Avenue east to Perryville Road. The section west of Mississippi was widened in 2008.
• A 3-mile section of Cantrell from Isom Creek to Pleasant Valley Drive was resurfaced in 2008.
• Over the past year, the bridge just west of Dillard's headquarters was resurfaced.
• A 4-mile section, from Pleasant Ridge Road west to Taylor Loop Road, will be widened in the future.
• A major improvement project at Interstate 430 west to Rodney Parham Road is in the planning stages.
So, to answer the question of when will the total repaving of Cantrell Road be done, The Mahatma says: After many of us pass through the pearly gates. Or, given the volume of traffic and the constant growth to the west of I-430, never.
Dearest Dude: Not your job, but we just saw a passenger in a Scion toss a beer bottle out her window onto the north shoulder of Cantrell Road at Interstate 430. My husband honked at them and both of them, young women, made several derisive body movements and hand signals. Is there any way to report this? -- Low-Class Behavior
Dear Behavior: The city's 311 call center operates from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Or citizens can use the 311 mobile app -- available for free from Apple and Google Play -- and the request will be automatically routed to the right department.
Another option -- 911. That's a judgment call. If those low-class people were driving erratically while tossing beer bottles out the window, the driver may have been intoxicated, which certainly qualifies as dangerous.
Hey, thanks for the info on *55, which connects to the Arkansas State Police anywhere. I was on Interstate 40 near Russellville and there was an 8-foot stepladder across both lanes. I had no idea whom to contact. -- Bob
Dear Bob: We live to serve.
Mahatma@arkansasonline.com
Metro on 05/14/2016