BARLING, AR — The Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT) has awarded the first of four projects to construct the next portion of Interstate 49 (I-49), between Highway 22 in Barling and Interstate 40 (I-40) in Alma (I-49 Extension), to Manhattan Road & Bridge for $282.5 million. The department’s design consultant is HNTB Corporation.
This first phase of the I-49 Extension, Job 040901, will construct a 3.1-mile stretch of I-49 between Highway 22 and Gun Club Road. It is being funded by a combination of regular federal-aid highway funding, federal grant funding, congressionally designated spending, and state funds.
The I-49 Extension will help close the 162-mile gap to completion of the nation’s mid-south I-49 transcontinental corridor, which will ultimately link the Gulf Coast with the central United States and Canada. This north-south corridor will also connect to six of the nation’s existing east-west National Highway Freight Network routes. The completion of I-49 will enhance international and domestic commerce and improve mobility in the region.
“This project, particularly the I-49 Arkansas River bridge, is a significant milestone toward our goal of completing the I-49 corridor from Fort Smith to Texarkana,” Arkansas Highway Commissioner Keith Gibson said. “When finished, I-49 will offer a safer and more efficient north-south highway in western Arkansas. The convergence of two major interstate highways, I-49 and I-40, in the River Valley will form a crossroads from the Canadian border to the Gulf Coast, and from the East Coast to the West Coast with the River Valley as the centerpiece. When combined with the area’s major railway systems and waterway transportation opportunities, I-49 will generate significant economic benefits and development not only to the region, but to the entire state of Arkansas.”
The I-49 Extension is estimated to cost approximately $1.3 billion from design to construction. This 14-mile segment of I-49 from Highway 22 to I-40 between Barling and Alma, just east of Fort Smith, will include a new bridge across the Arkansas River, a major component of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System. Interchanges will be constructed at Highway 22, Gun Club Road, Clear Creek Road, and I-40. Gun Club Road will be improved to highway standards between future I-49 and Highway 59.
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Senator Justin Boyd and Senator Jim Petty recently facilitated a Joint House and Senate Transportation Committee meeting in Fort Smith, Arkansas, to update the membership on the status of Interstate 49. The members voted unanimously to write a letter of support for the project.
“ARDOT has made it a priority to complete Interstate 49 in Arkansas, and we’re grateful that our Congressional Delegation, our Governor, and our Legislature supports that mission,” ARDOT Director Lorie Tudor said. “We are eager to begin work on this critical first piece from Highway 22 to Gun Club Road that will include a new bridge over the Arkansas River.”
