Lane expansion planned for U.S. 67

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has awarded $10 million for improvements to U.S. Highway 67 northeast of Little Rock and $4 million for the construction of a railroad overpass in Monticello.

DOT awarded a $10 million grant from the Better Utilizing Investment to Leverage Development (BUILD) program, which will be used to widen U.S. Highway 67 from four to six lanes, construct an overpass, convert frontage roads to one-way operation and reconstruct two interchanges.

This grant follows a $40 million award the project received from DOT’s Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) program in June.

Arkansas’ congressional delegation announced the projects Thursday (Sept. 10).

“This is great news for Arkansas, which has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to make U.S. Highway 67 an interstate-quality road. This funding will bring us closer to completing ‘Future I-57,” which is key for making the communities around it even more attractive places to live, work or start a business,” the delegation said in a collective statement.

An additional $4 million BUILD grant was awarded by DOT for the construction of a railroad overpass on the north-south connector from U.S. Highway 278 to the Arkansas Highway 83 Spur in Monticello. The project will create better access to emergency healthcare and improve the overall safety of the route by allowing a safe bypass of the rail tracks for vehicular traffic.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao noted that these grants were part of a larger announcement to fund critical surface transportation projects across the nation.