Alec Farmer rolls off Highway Commission

Jonesboro businessman Alec Farmer ended his 10-year stint on the prestigious Arkansas Highway Commission and had a lot to reflect on upon his departure. For the past two years, he has served as chairman of the powerful panel.

Highway Commission appointments are for 10 years, and Farmer was appointed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson in 2015, the first appointment Hutchinson made to the commission.

During his tenure, Farmer helped pass the Issue 1 sales tax dedicated to highway funding, guided the road agency through a pandemic, and dealt with crises like the I-40 Mississippi River bridge crack that closed the span for weeks. 

Farmer, 60, sat down with Talk Business & Politics Editor-in-Chief Roby Brock at the Arkansas Highway Department office in Little Rock to assess a decade of accomplishments, thoughts on future needs, and how Northeast Arkansas has benefited from his service.

Roby Brock: Your father served on the Highway Commission many years ago. How does it feel to have walked a few miles in his shoes?

Alec Farmer: He served a little over two years on the Highway Commission. It’s been an honor to serve with a great group of people to work with, both inside and outside the department. I feel like we’ve made a lot of strides, had a lot of accomplishments in the 10 years, just mainly because we had people dedicated to serving the public and serving the citizens of Arkansas. 

Brock: What do you point to as one or two of the biggest accomplishments from your 10 years on the commission? 

Farmer: The biggest has to be the Act 416 and Issue 1 getting passed in 2020 with 55% of the vote and winning 72 to 75 counties. That was the largest cash infusion for highways, I imagine, in the history of the state. And the difference it made is night and day. 

When I was appointed to the Highway Commission, my first conversation with then director Scott Bennett was about managing the decline of the system. That meant we only had enough funds to really adequately maintain half the system and the other half was just going to pieces. This gives us a chance now to catch up, get the entire system in good condition, address our bridge problems that we had in a lot of our rural areas and rural regions where we have timber and agriculture products.

This allows us to get those bridges back in top condition, fully posted for the full weight limit. And it allows us to develop future corridors for our economic development plans like Interstate 57 or I-49 or Highway 82 or 412. 

Brock: Let’s talk about I-57. When you got on the commission, that was one of the first things we talked about was that you wanted to find a way to make that interstate a reality. Now 10 years later, it’s much more a reality than it was. 

Farmer: When I was appointed from my region, I was charged with getting Interstate 555 designated, and we had the future designation for I-57. We were able to work with Congressman Rick Crawford’s office to get a waiver for a four-mile stretch over the St. Francis Floodway and that allowed us to get that designation. Then right on the heels of that, we turned our attention to I-57 and again, through Congressman Crawford and Senator Boozman, the governor, and the General Assembly, mayors and judges and business people up and down that corridor all came together and were able to get that designation. First, of course, was the future designation, and now just a few weeks ago we took the future off of it, and it’s now going to be Interstate 57. 

Brock: Tell me a little bit about Northeast Arkansas specifically. You’re from Jonesboro. I know that was an area that you wanted to pay some particular focus to. Where do you think Northeast Arkansas is now with its roads system compared to when you started 10 years ago? 

Farmer: Well, the entire state is better off than it was, and that includes Northeast Arkansas. We’ve been able to address some congestion issues, but primarily we had 60% of our deficient, obsolete bridges in the state of Arkansas in the 16 counties in Northeast Arkansas. That was an especially troublesome problem we had from my perspective.

We were able to address some of it, and I’m proud of this too, working with District 10 engineer Brad Smithy, we put together a plan that got approved down here at the central office where we created a dedicated rural bridge crew program. What happens with those rural bridges is they’re so far removed from the other bridges, they’re isolated. It’s not an attractive job for a private contractor to bid on because they have the mobilization cost and everything. This allowed us to dedicate our people to go out and get those bridges in the rural areas that are really not attractive to the private sector to bid on and get those fixed. Again, agriculture is our number one industry in the state — that’s timber, row crops, and livestock. Getting those bridges addressed was a real major point that we handled, particularly in northeast Arkansas. 

Brock: What challenges do you think lie ahead for roads in Arkansas?

Farmer: In a nutshell, inflation is still a factor, but I think the biggest challenge is managing expectations not only because of the inflationary impact on project costs, but also because we’re not going to be able to address all of our highway system needs in two or three years now that we have more adequate funding – needs that were created over 25-30 years due to insufficient funding. It shows how far we’ve come that 10 years ago we were significantly underfunded and concerned about managing the decline of the highway system. Now, our biggest challenge is managing expectations.

Brock: What’s next for you now that you are not going to have this to occupy hours of your day and weeks? What’s Alec Farmer’s next move? 

Farmer: Learning how to say no. I’ve spent 30 some-odd years in public service starting with the YMCA board of directors and the Chamber of Commerce local planning commission, local city council, and local utility board. So I’ve done a lot of things. It’s time to pass the torch and let somebody else have some fun for a while.