All westbound lanes on a section of Interstate 30 in downtown Little Rock will be closed and require a detour this weekend to accommodate work on a new overpass for East Ninth Street, the Arkansas Department of Transportation said.
The contractor working on a $1 billion project to improve the 6.7-mile I-30 corridor through downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock will shut down the westbound lanes between East Sixth Street and Interstate 630 from 10 p.m. today to 5 a.m. Monday, weather permitting.
If all goes as planned, it will mark the second "significant" lane closing in the corridor this month. The contractor performed a similar shutdown in the same section eastbound two weekends ago.
Traffic intending to travel west will be shifted onto an I-30 frontage road, in this case the southbound frontage road via the exit ramp for East Sixth Street, the agency said in a news release. Drivers will use an on-ramp north of I-630 to return to I-30.
Shutting down all of the westbound lanes in that section of the corridor will allow workers to place more girders for the new East Ninth Street bridge that will cross I-30.
That work will require other lane closings as well. They include:
• The I-30 eastbound left lane will be closed between I-630 and East Sixth Street.
• The I-30 westbound exit ramp to I-630 will be closed. Traffic will continue west on I-30 to Roosevelt Road and return to the I-630 interchange.
• The East Sixth Street bridge between the I-30 frontage roads will be closed.
• Some city streets in the vicinity of Sixth and Ninth streets will be closed to facilitate traffic movement. Local street detours will be indicated with signs.
More than 110,000 vehicles a day use that part of I-30 on average, according to agency data, although traffic is typically lighter on weekends.
State transportation agencies have increasingly seen full lane closings in a compressed period as a safer alternative to drivers and workers rather than spreading out more limited lane closings overnight that keeps traffic disruptions in place for a longer period.
A long-term and permanent travel impact interactive map is available at 30Crossing.com, along with additional project information.