City engineer says ‘tough decisions’ needed with Fort Smith street work plans

Ben Marts has told the Fort Smith Board of Directors that reduced funding for streets, bridge and drainage work will in the future require “some tough decisions” and changes in how the city maintains its street infrastructure.

Marts, interim director of engineering with the city of Fort Smith, presented a proposed capital improvement plan (CIP) during the board’s Oct. 28 study session.

According to the CIP budget, the city is estimated to have $67.715 million in funds available with plans to spend $35.137 million on projects in 2026. The projects include $7.361 million for street overlays, $5.739 million in neighborhood drainage, $3.6 million in river levee/bank stabilization, and $3.425 million in new road work approved in prior years.

“No new streets are proposed to be added for the 2026 cycle due to the reduction of income from the Sales and Use Tax being modified from 1% to 5/8th%,” Marts noted in a memo prior to the study session.

Fort Smith voters in May 2025 approved a sales tax reallocation plan to provide $360 million over 30 years to fund federally-mandated sewer system work. The vote reallocated a 0.75% sales tax first approved by voters in 2022 to pay for consent decree work and to pay bonds, with 0.125% used for the Fort Smith Police Department. It also renewed the 1% street tax but reallocated 0.625% for streets, bridges and drainage work, with the remainder of the tax to fund consent decree work and bonds. And it approved the authorization to use the tax revenue to issue bonds to pay for the work.

The 1% street tax generated $29.51 million in 2024, below the $29.92 million in 2023, but up 30.2% since 2020.

In his presentation to the board, Marts said “there are some tough decisions” to be made to avoid “crumbling infrastructure.”

In a follow up interview with Talk Business & Politics, Marts said the last street inventory and rating project was conducted in 2021 and found that the city had 513 miles of roads, with 480 miles being asphalt roads.

“Since then, numerous private and public construction projects have added additional miles,” Marts noted in an email. “The new roadways will be added to the inventory as part of the 2026 Roadway Rating study.”

Marts said complex factors that city engineers use annually to determine capital improvement needs makes it difficult to precisely estimate how much the city should spend annually on streets, bridges, and drainage work.

“Generally, we expect the construction cost of a two-lane resurfacing job to be approximately $1.25 million per mile,” Marts noted in the email. “Traditionally, it is expected that a street will need to be overlaid once every 20 to 25 years. Based on this guidance, the City should be milling and overlaying approximately 4% (19 miles) to 5% (24 miles) of its streets annually. The expected budget for milling and overlaying 19 miles of roadway would be approximately $23,750,000. The City plans to re-rate the streets in 2026, focusing on those most in need for the 2027 CIP cycle.”

Director Neal Martin said during the study session that he believes the city can do a better job identifying which streets and bridges need attention, adding that some streets receive an overlay based on time since the last overlay and not because the overlay is needed.

“I want to make sure that we’re looking at it with a fine-tooth comb, making sure we are resurfacing the right streets at the right time and not just any street and every street because it meets some criteria,” Martin said.