Metroplan, the federally designated metropolitan planning organization for central Arkansas, will hold a public hearing Wednesday to accept comments regarding a proposed amendment to the region's long-range plan for the project to widen Interstate 30 through downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock.
The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. in the Campus Center at University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College at 3000 W. Scenic Drive in North Little Rock.
The hearing was originally scheduled to be held in the Ron Robinson Theater, part of the Central Arkansas Library System's main library at 100 River Market Ave.
But Susan Markman, transportation planner for Metroplan, said a "miscommunication" resulted in the theater not being available Wednesday.
"It wasn't the library's fault," she said. "It was clearly a miscommunication. We ultimately decided it was better to move the venue rather than change the date and time."
The proposed Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department project calls for replacing the section of I-30 that crosses the Arkansas River and widening it to eight or 10 lanes. The project includes work on a 6.7-mile portion of the interstate.
Critics of the project have long said adding lanes to the roadway won't solve traffic congestion but would just move it elsewhere. The Highway Department's preliminary traffic forecasting models also show that.
The department is requesting a language update in Metroplan's long-range transportation plan, a 25-year plan called Imagine Central Arkansas that the transportation planning agency is required by the Federal Highway Administration to maintain. The board is scheduled to vote on the proposed amendment at its June 28 meeting.
The amendment would add the phrase "capacity improvements" to the long-range plan's description of the project. The amendment is necessary before construction can be authorized and federal money spent on it.
"Capacity improvements must be understood to include major widening among other improvements," Ward Mayor Art Brooke, the Metroplan board president, said in a letter to central Arkansas residents.
Doors will open at 5 p.m. and staff will be available to answer questions on the plan amendment. The public comment in front of the Metroplan board will begin at 6 p.m.
Metro on 05/13/2017