AHTD to Drivers: ?Brace Yourselves?

When Arkansas voters approved a massive rehabilitation of the state’s interstate highway system in 1999, they probably thought about the price tag — almost $1 billion — and the targeted result — a first-class highway network after years of potholes and asphalt patches.

But they may not have considered that they were also approving five years of orange barrels.

Realizing this, the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department (AHTD) is spending a considerable amount of time and money to warn motorists to brace themselves for an exponential increase in miles under construction and to keep dreaming about those smooth future roads.

Because they’ve barely seen the tip of the orange barrel.

Last year, the first for the Interstate Rehabilitation Project (IRP), an average of 50-75 miles of road was under construction, compared to the norm of 12-15 miles annually. Over the next couple of years, an average of 200-300 miles of interstate highway will be under construction.

To mitigate what is likely to be a tense situation on Arkansas interstates, AHTD commissioned “Pave The Way,” a multi-media education and information program.

Pave The Way, officially launched April 4 with a news conference featuring eye-catching graphics and thick press kits, is designed to get motorists through the IRP safely and with reasonable blood-pressure levels.

In addition, the department hopes to keep everyone thinking about that smooth end result “so that motorists, particularly those from out of state who don’t know what’s going on … won’t think we’ve lost our mind,” said Mary P. “Prissy” Hickerson, a member of the Arkansas Highway Commission from Texarkana.

The top priority for AHTD remains safety, Hickerson said, for motorists and construction workers alike.

The Rehab Plan

Arkansas’ interstate system consists primarily of Interstate 40, which runs east-west between Fort Smith and West Memphis; Interstate 30, a north-south route between North Little Rock and Texarkana; and Interstate 55, which runs north-south between the Missouri border and West Memphis.

The roads have been criticized almost continuously since the interstate system was constructed in the 1960s, but voters in 1996 overwhelmingly rejected a massive construction project proposed by former Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, to be financed by a tax increase. After several years of disagreement between the Highway Commission and Gov. Mike Huckabee following Huckabee’s 1996 ascent to the office, the governor and the commission agreed to issue bonds, backed by future state and federal funds, to raise money for the work. The plan, using Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicle (GARVEE) Bonds, passed in a 1999 election.

Work on the $950 million plan began last year, but serious congestion and inconvenience only became apparent to most motorists in the past few months. The highway department needed to get the word out on what was happening.

‘Pave the Way’

AHTD already had a public affairs department, but it was usually busy with routine business, along with taking a very active role in legislative matters.

“We felt like we needed a more massive campaign,” Hickerson said. “We felt that we needed a little outside help.”

AHTD requested bids for a large-scale project, ultimately awarding the contract to Thoma Thoma Creative of Little Rock, which hatched Pave The Way.

In addition, the department hired an experienced public relations representative, Farrell Wilson, strictly to head the IRP information drive.

To date, AHTD has spent about $125,000 on Pave The Way, while Wilson’s annual salary, as an “administrative officer II,” is $48,802, she said.

The campaign features orange and black logos and “warning sign” elements, to coordinate Pave The Way and Think Ahead, the safety reminder component, with “existing construction icons.”

It appears that, if so inclined, Arkansas residents could spend most of their waking hours interacting with Pave The Way in some form, given the barrage of materials described in the press kit.

“Resources include printed brochures, public service announcements, an extensive network of both standard and variable message roadside signage, Highway Advisory Radio broadcasts, the AHTD Motorist Assistance Patrol, a monthly electronic newsletter and a new Web site at www.ArkansasInterstates.com,” the accompanying literature stated.

The program offers lane closure and other construction information and advice for safe travel, urging drivers to merge left in congested zones and to move vehicles off the road following a non-injury accident.

“Right now, it is critical for motorists to think years, hours, minutes and especially seconds ahead in order to get through this construction period as smoothly as possible,” said AHTD director Dan Flowers.

Thoma Thoma Creative developed the materials and sent out 500 press kits in anticipation of the launch date, said Martin Thoma, principal of the firm.

“We’ve got to get people aware of the extent of highway construction and the safety issues associated with it,” Thoma said. “This is what was approved by the voters. Everybody did want it to be on the fast track.

“You put 200-300 miles of interstate under construction, and you’re going to have some inconvenience. As we go through this summer and next summer, we’re going to experience increasing levels of construction and … traffic.”

Pave The Way is already attracting attention outside the state, winning a second-place work zone awareness award from the American Road and Transportation Builders Association and the National Safety Council.

Patience

AHTD contracts with Thoma Thoma on an hourly basis as needed, Wilson said, and it is doing everything possible in-house to save money.

“We are relying most heavily on our own internal resources,” Wilson said. “The Web site was created here.”

Though helping the state survive the IRP is her only job now, Wilson expects to continue with the department as a special projects coordinator after the program is completed, she said.

Perhaps AHTD’s most vocal critic, the Arkansas Trucking Association, has afforded Pave The Way tepid support. ATA chairman Tim Hill said he had not heard anything about the program. Lane Kidd, ATA president, said the trucking industry supports the department’s goal of supplying information and safety guidance.

“It’s a nice public relations program,” Kidd said. “It won’t make travel any faster, but hopefully it will make some of the motorists more patient, and I think that’s the ultimate goal.

“If the department can disseminate real-time information out to the motoring public about delays, then it will be of great value to the industry.”

Kidd, who has often criticized AHTD for failing to spend adequate resources to maintain the interstates, viewed the IRP as a necessary but cumbersome remedy.

“It’s water under the bridge now, but it didn’t have to be this way,” he said. “But better late than never.”