State ready to get started on $87.3M project to widen I-630; 8 lanes planned for busy section

FILE — Workers install a sign along Interstate 630 in this December 2017 file photo.
FILE — Workers install a sign along Interstate 630 in this December 2017 file photo.

An $87.3 million project to widen a section of Interstate 630 in Little Rock will go forward after an Arkansas Department of Transportation review of the winning bid by Manhattan Road & Bridge Co. found no discrepancies.

“Everything looked good,” Danny Straessle, the agency spokesman, said Monday. “We’re ready to get the project started.”

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A map showing the I-630 widening.

The project will widen to eight lanes a 2.5-mile section between Baptist Health Medical Center and South University Avenue as well as replace the South Hughes Street overpass and bridges over South Rodney Parham Road and Rock Creek and install sound barriers for neighborhoods on the north side of the project.

The section now carries more than 100,000 vehicles daily, a number that is expected to climb to nearly 140,000 daily in 20 years.

The Manhattan firm, which has offices in Little Rock and Northwest Arkansas, is expected to begin work in late May or early June and take about two years.

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