The road work on Interstate 30 in Saline County is approximately 65 percent complete, according to David Parker, public information officer for the Arkansas Department of Transportation.
According to the ARDOT website, the estimated completion date is now “Late 2023.”
Parker said originally the estimated completion date was for late 2022.
At the Saline County Legislative Breakfast on March 31, State Rep. R.J. Hawk, who serves on the transportation committee in the House of Representatives, said he recently asked Lorie Tudor, director of the Arkansas Department of Transportation, about the road work on Interstate 30 between Benton and Haskell.
According to Hawk, the project was delayed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said the job was contracted to a company out of Texas that used Arkansas employees. Hawk claimed that after the pandemic started, people decided to not return to work.
“COVID hit and people just didn’t come back to work. They actually lost their entire workforce on that thing so it put them further and further behind. When that project is over with, they are going to end up owing the state of Arkansas money because they didn’t meet performance goals,” said Hawk.
The contract for this project was awarded to the Johnson Brothers Corp. for $187.3 million and the work began in May of 2019.
“ARDOT is currently coordinating with the contractor to provide a revised schedule for remaining work, this schedule is expected in the next few weeks,” said Parker.
Parker said that once that schedule reviewed, they will be able to provide a more accurate estimated completion date. He also said that ARDOT will be working with the contractor’s updated schedule to identify areas to expedite the work in “any way possible.”
The project is part of ARDOT’s Connecting Arkansas Program, which contributes to the six-lane widening of I-30 in Saline County. The widening is approximately for 5.5 miles of the interstate between U.S. 70 and Sevier Street.
According to the ARDOT website, the Connecting Arkansas Program is “one of the largest highway construction programs ever undertaken by the Arkansas Department of Transportation.”
In 2012, Arkansas voters approved a constitutional amendment creating a 10-year, half-cent sales tax to improve the states “intermodal transportation system.” This included projects to widen and improve 170 miles of highways and interstates in Arkansas.
