Dear Paver of Truth: I was motoring back to Little Rock from Hot Springs during the rain. The repaved Interstate 30 is very smooth, but in Bryant water was pooling on the highway at several points on the inside lane. I moved to the middle lane only to have a car pass me on the inside lane throwing so much water from one of the pools I couldn't see even with the wipers at full speed. Standing water on an interstate highway seems like a faulty overlay job by the contractor. What say ArDot? -- Herb
Dear Herb: A mention of rain always makes us think of Igor and Dr. Frankenstein. Could be worse. How? Could be raining.
The grapevine reaches out to Johnathon Mormon, District 6 construction engineer for the Arkansas Department of Transportation.
He says ArDot has noticed the same thing during heavy rain in various locations on the project. They will be corrected before the project is completed.
Dear King of the Road: Many years ago construction started to widen Interstate 30 to three lanes from Sevier Street in Benton to and from U.S. 70. Could you tell the people living in this area if it will ever be completed? -- Want to Know
Dear Know: There are actually two projects bedeviling drivers of I-30 in Saline and Pulaski counties. Our information comes from iDrive Arkansas, the ArDot website for all things.
First, there is the Sevier Street to Geyer Springs Road segment, mile marker 115.96 to mile marker 132.68, or an overlay on roughly 17 miles. Estimated completion date of late 2023. Redstone Construction Group Inc. is the contractor. Cost is $40.5 million. The start was in June 2022.
Second, and to our reader's point, is the U.S. 70 to Sevier Street widening, 5.9 miles from mile marker 110.34 to mile marker 116.24. The project aims to widen 5.402 miles of I-30 to six lanes, reconstruct three interchanges and replace five bridges.
This, too, has an estimated completion date of late 2023, but it started way back in May 2019. Johnson Bros. Corp. is the contractor, to the tune of $187.3 million.
Dear Mahatma: Ten dog years? Seventy years? -- Here Comes the Judge
Dear Judge: Thank you for noting a mistaken mathematical mishap in a recent column. We strove to put an exclamation point on a really old temporary license.
Next time, we will check our dog math with Wilma the Family Hound, if we can get her to stop chasing squirrels.
Vanity plate: 2OFAKND. This one stumps us.
Traffic questions answered free at fjfellone@gmail.com. Relationship advice, 5 cents.