LITTLE ROCK -- The Arkansas Department of Transportation has identified five projects it would use to reimburse its Amendment 91 account a total of $121.1 million the state Supreme Court said the agency illegally spent on two other projects.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chip Welch has given the department 60 days to reimburse the account.
The department already has reimbursed the account $62.2 million, according to documents submitted in a case before Welch.
At issue was $183.3 million for projects to improve the Interstate 30 corridor through downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock, also called 30 Crossing, and to widen a section of Interstate 630 in west Little Rock.
"Our plan is to remove Amendment 91 from the 30 Crossing and I-630 projects and replace it with regular state funds from a preliminary list of projects," agency spokesman Dave Parker said in an email. "Conversely, the removed Amendment 91 funds will be applied to this preliminary list of projects. This change is in response to the court's guidelines."
Voters approved Amendment 91 to the Arkansas Constitution in 2012 to help pay for the department's $1.8 billion Connecting Arkansas Program, which focused on improving about 200 miles of state highways in regionally significant corridors.
The program was financed by a half-percent statewide sales tax that Arkansas began collecting in 2013. It is scheduled to expire in 2023.
In November 2018, Shelly Buonaiuto of Fayetteville led a group of Arkansas residents who sued the department, its director and the Arkansas Highway Commission, contending a "plain reading" of Amendment 91 clearly limited spending on projects no wider than four lanes.
The I-30 project and the I-630 project were six-lane thoroughfares being widened to 10 and eight lanes, respectively.
The 30 Crossing project is an extensive effort to improve the I-30 corridor through downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock, including replacing the bridge over the Arkansas River. Work on the first phase began in September. Both phases are estimated to cost a collective $1 billion.
The widening of a 2.2-mile section of I-630 in west Little Rock was completed at a cost of $87.4 million.
Welch agreed with the department in a 2019 decision that repeated references to four-lane roads in the amendment were shorthand for the agency's so-called four-lane grid system of high-priority roads, which included six-lane roads.
But the state Supreme Court disagreed. Its 6-1 decision said that because of the wording in Amendment 91, all of the money for the projects in question will have to come from sources other than the sales tax.
Parker said the list of projects isn't definitive. The projects include:
• Widening sections of U.S. 67 in Jacksonville and Cabot.
• Widening a section of U.S. 64 in Crittenden County.
• Widening a section of U.S. 65 in Boone County.
• Construction of Arkansas 612 in Benton County.
• Widening a section of U.S. 167 north from Hampton in Calhoun County.
The department also will move some funds from various projects within its Interstate Rehabilitation Program. They will be identified by the court deadline, Parker said.
Some of the changes in the accounting for the Amendment 91 money are reflected in the proposed spending priorities the department has identified over the next four years in a document called the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program.
The 247-page federally mandated document catalogues the more than 250 projects the department expects to work on in each of the four federal fiscal years, including the one that began Oct. 1, 2020. Over that time, the department will receive nearly $4 billion in federal and state aid, according to the document.
Amendment 91 money has been stripped from 30 Crossing, the document shows. Through Sept. 30, 2024, the department will spend $417.6 million. The total comprises $334.08 million in federal money and $83.52 million in state money.
Where the $121.1 million in Amendment 91 money is going is unclear. The U.S. 67 widening project in Jacksonville and Cabot is scheduled to begin this year at an estimated cost of $194.2 million. About $96 million in Amendment 91 money is budgeted for the project, which also received $50 million in two competitive federal grants. Another $48.1 million is expected to be used on the project.
The document may be downloaded from the department's website at http://www.ardot.gov/STIP.
The department said that all comments regarding the document should be submitted in writing to Jared Wiley, the agency's assistant chief engineer for planning, Post Office Box 2261, Little Rock, AR, 72203. Comments also can be emailed to STIP@ardot.gov.
Metroplan, the long-range transportation planning agency in Central Arkansas, has its own version of the document out for public comment through next Sunday. Its Transportation Improvement Program includes the state projects in Central Arkansas and must match the state document.
The Metroplan board of directors, composed of the region's mayors and county judges, will consider approving the agency document by the end of the month. The Arkansas Highway Commission is expected to take up final approval of its document in March.