Cost of I-49 segment between Barling and Alma rises to $1 billion

Federal legislation that delivered $83 million for a foreign pilot training center in Fort Smith also brings to Arkansas $67 million to help complete Interstate 49 between Alma and Barling. Every dollar will be needed. The cost for the almost 14-mile segment has ballooned to $1 billion.

State officials in October 2022 ceremonially broke ground on the 13.7-mile segment that will connect a segment of I-49 in Barling north to the I-40 interchange in Alma. That section will include a bridge over the Arkansas River and have interchanges at Highway 22, Gun Club Road, Clear Creek Road and I-40. The bridge across the Arkansas River will be east of Trimble Lock & Dam and the U.S. 59 bridge. There are 180 miles of the I-49 route to build in Arkansas between Alma and Texarkana.

The MilCon-VA bill recently approved by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden included the $67 million for the work between Alma and Barling. The bill, pushed by U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., was primarily focused on providing additional funds and programs for veterans’ health care but included money for other projects.

Jared Wiley, chief engineer for pre-construction with the Arkansas Department of Transportation (ArDOT), told Talk Business & Politics that the $67 million was expected but the department is pleased that it made it in the final bill. Wiley said a new total for the project, initially estimated at around $710 million, is now around $1 billion, “which speaks to the level of inflation” in just the past two years.

For example, in October 2022, the estimated cost to construct the I-40/I-49 interchange at Alma was around $270 million. The cost is now around $350 million to fund the “massive amount of bridge work to connect to I-40 and to connect to I-49,” Wiley said.

He said the river bridge cost is estimated at around $330 million, above the October 2022 estimate of $250 million.

Available funding for the work through fiscal year 2026 is $140 million, and Wiley anticipates the funding could increase to $400 million in fiscal years 2027 and 2028.

He said bids for construction could be let late this year or early next year, with work beginning in the summer of 2025. The work would begin in Barling and move north toward the I-40 interchange.

When might the 13.7-mile segment be complete?

“It’s conceivable to think that people could be driving on it in 10 years (after construction begins),” Wiley said.

Arkansas highway officials estimated in early 2022 that it would cost $4.1 billion to complete 136 miles of I-49 from Fort Smith to the Texas state line.