AHTD Works Overtime, Causes Jam at War Eagle

If you were driving down Arkansas Highway 265 between Fayetteville and Springdale on the weekend of the War Eagle Crafts Fair (Oct. 17), you might have noticed that traffic was backed up because of construction.

Keith Stephens, a spokesman for the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, says the contractor, APAC Arkansas Inc.’s McClinton-Anchor division, was working overtime to finish the job before it cost them any more money.

The 5.5 miles of shoulder work and resurfacing was scheduled to be completed by Oct. 16. Each day past that cost the contractor $400 in fines. McClinton-Anchor ran six days late on the project, racking up $2,400 in fines. But in the grand scheme of things, that wasn’t much. The project’s bid totaled $560,427.

Stephens says the crew wouldn’t necessarily have taken off because it was one of the busiest tourist weekends in the Ozarks, even if it was ahead on the project.

“There’s something going on up there, like football games, almost every weekend,” he says.