Cong. Crawford Says Short-term Solution May Help Highway Funding, NEA

With a looming May 31 deadline that could end federal funding of highway and transportation projects in Arkansas and nationally, Cong. Rick Crawford, R-Jonesboro, said a short-term plan may be what is approved.

“As of now, a long term reauthorization before the deadline is not likely, so the most probable option is a short term patch that’s going to allow (House) Ways and Means additional time to secure funding for a full authorization later this year,” Crawford said.

So it may be a pretty good challenge to see where funding to rebuild the state’s highway system will come from in the future, a member of a working group that will study highway funding said.

Jonesboro Mayor Harold Perrin was one of 20 people appointed earlier this month by Gov. Asa Hutchinson to look at the issue.

Among those appointed to the working group were Budget Director Duncan Baird, Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department Director Scott Bennett, highway commissioner Alec Farmer, Reps. Dan Douglas, R-Bentonville, and Andy Davis, R-Little Rock, as well as Sen. Bill Sample, R-Hot Springs.

Perrin said the issue is a key one for both state and federal officials, with both looking at ways to improve infrastructure.

“The highway department has already started pulling projects (due to a May 31 deadline to either reauthorize or extend a highway funding bill) as are other states,” Perrin said. “Highways and infrastructure, they are the mainframe of economic development.”

Perrin said he has been reviewing the work of the then-Arkansas Blue Ribbon Commission on Highway Funding, created in 2009, as a reference.

The commission looked at funding issues involving major projects around the state.
I-555

One such project involves the future I-555 in Craighead and Poinsett counties.

Construction crews worked for several years to upgrade the highway, which is now U.S. 63. Several overpasses and interchanges were built between Turrell and Marked Tree to prepare the highway for interstate status.

But there is one piece of the proverbial puzzle still left to be done.

An access road must be built across the St. Francis Floodway near Payneway before the highway can become an interstate.

However, Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Jonesboro is working on legislation that would exempt certain vehicles from some of the weight limit restrictions that are imposed once a highway is designated to become an interstate.

“Presently, there is a three-mile stretch of road that spans the St. Francis Floodway (in Poinsett County near Payneway) that requires an access road. Without it, cotton modules, agriculture equipment and some heavy vehicles like dump trucks would be forced to take a 90-mile detour,” Crawford said in March. “The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department has indicated that an access road could cost as much as $50 million.”

Perrin said the exemption alone would help move funding to other much needed projects.

“I was going to the Grizzlies game the other night and went across one of the bridges to Memphis,” Perrin said. “There was rebar sticking out and holes on the bridge in both directions. Imagine if that money (for the access road) could be used (to fix the bridge). It definitely would not be enough but would help.”

Crawford said the I-555 idea has received good support.

“As for our I-555 plan, we don’t expect any meaningful resistance to its inclusion in that long-term reauthorization,” Crawford said.

HIGHLAND DRIVE/NETTLETON AVENUE OVERPASS
Work will begin next week on a $16 million project to build an overpass across a railroad crossing at Highland Drive and Nettleton Avenue.

On Monday (May 18), officials will talk about the project, give details about the design and a plan to build the overpass.

City officials have pressed for the overpass due to safety concerns and other issues at the busy traveled intersection for several years.

The city received a $1.5 million federal TIGER grant last year to do an environmental study on the issue. Since then, Perrin’s office, AHTD officials and Little Rock-based Bridgefarmer & Associates have been preparing for the project.