Little Rock is contemplating shelling out more cash for out-of-state consultants to negotiate an agreement with the Arkansas Department of Transportation concerning the planned Interstate 30 expansion.
Last year the city paid California-based Nelson/Nygaard $75,770 to study the Transportation Department's plans and to counsel the city on what actions and position it should take.
The project -- called 30 Crossing -- is a plan to improve a 6.7-mile corridor of Interstate 30 through downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock, including replacing the I-30 bridge over the Arkansas River. It's been a contentious discussion for the past few years. Some critics don't like the idea of expanding the bridge from the current six lanes to the proposed eight or 10.
After the initial contract, the city paid Nelson/Nygaard $50,000 more to help it negotiate a memorandum of understanding with the Transportation Department. That is still being finalized.
Now the Board of Directors is being asked by city officials to pay Nelson/Nygaard another $175,950 to prepare an interagency agreement with the Transportation Department, advise the city throughout the department's design-build contract and articulate the city's position on what the final project should look like.
The amended contract with the company would be for the duration of the 30 Crossing project, city Planning and Development Director Jamie Collins said Tuesday. He requested the amount of money it could take for Nelson/Nygaard to continue its work over the next several years but emphasized it may end up costing less.
Coming up with an interagency agreement was one of the primary recommendations Nelson/Nygaard had in its initial report last year. The firm told officials the city needed a written contract with the Transportation Department concerning certain design aspects that will affect downtown and the development there.
"This crossing is going to be a major crossing in Little Rock. It is going to affect a lot of things in downtown Little Rock -- how it flows, pedestrian traffic, all modes of transportation in some shape, form or fashion," Collins said. "We believe Nelson/Nygaard -- with their experience on a nationwide basis dealing with other state departments of transportation in this design-build scenario -- will help the city in that process."
Danny Straessle, spokesman for the Department of Transportation, said Tuesday that the agency regularly involves municipalities in the design of major projects. The department is willing to work with the city toward an agreement, but the question will be who is going to pay for the aspects the city wants.
"Our understanding is that the city of Little Rock wants to put in an agreement things that they would like to see in the finished product. A key component to any such agreement will be who will pay for that. So just because something is agreed upon does not mean it will happen, because there may be a difference in opinion of who should pay for something," Straessle said.
The Nelson/Nygaard consultants told city officials last year that the city should ask for lighting features on underpasses and for speeds on collector-distributor lanes to be low enough to encourage safe in-city driving.
The city should also ask that certain overpasses, like the ones at East Sixth and East Ninth streets, be expanded to allow landscaped buffers and sidewalks on both sides so pedestrians can feel like they are still downtown and not just crossing an interstate, the consultants advised.
"When you redo a crossing across a river and redo this highway by downtown Little Rock, there is no way to [have] no impact whatsoever," Collins said Tuesday. "There are some impacts. It could either go where it negatively affects some things or it could be positive. Any development could go either way. We want to make sure we have the best knowledge we can in this process to make sure we get a good project."
Straessle said it's one thing for the Department of Transportation to agree to put lighting at an underpass, but it's another thing to pay for it. He said the city paid for and maintains the lighting at the Big Rock interchange in west Little Rock and for the lighting that is on the I-30 bridges right now.
The Little Rock Board of Directors will vote on the amended contract with Nelson/Nygaard at its 6 p.m. meeting Tuesday at City Hall.
Metro on 09/27/2017