State Capitol Week in Review
From Senator Steve Crowell
Little Rock – The Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT) is currently working on 230 active projects as of early October 2025, with a projected cost of $2.4 billion. The department has been actively maintaining secondary highways across the state with about 500 miles of road planned to be preserved by the end of this year.
In September, six state projects were awarded $31.1 million and two county projects were awarded $700,000. During September bid-letting cycle, ARDOT received 28 bids from 22 different contractors. The department’s chief engineer for preconstruction highlighted three of those projects. One of those projects is the Interstate 540 and Arkansas 255 interchange in Sebastian County that was awarded $3.4 million. It is expected to be completed by early 2027.
The second project was a contract awarding $19.2 million to replace a bridge along U.S. 67 in Clark County. The bridge goes over the Caddo River. Clark County, in partnership with the Transportation Department, will provide funds to construct a shared-use path on the west side of the new bridge along U.S. 67. The third project highlighted; a $2.2 million contract was awarded to alleviate traffic congestion at the U.S. 70 and University Avenue intersection. The project will include upgraded traffic signal equipment, roadway lighting and will be repaved with new markings. Metroplan of Central Arkansas is contributing $600,000 and the city of Little Rock is providing the cost to replace signal equipment.
A new pavement preservation program for 2026 is in the works featuring 29 highway projects totaling $170 million; 21 of which will be pavement preservation projects.
One major part of the Transportation Department’s work is maintaining state roadways. According to Jared Wiley, the department’s director, “maintenance is 75% or 80% of the department’s budget.” ARDOT divides the state into 10 districts, and the statewide maintenance preservation program is about $15 million, divided by $1.5 million per district. According to Steve Frisbee, assistant chief engineer for maintenance, “last year with the $1.5 million the districts were able to chip seal over 416 miles of state highways and place over 225,000 tons of asphalt for leveling and patching.” In 2025, 340 miles of road will be sealed, 145 will be leveled, and 24 miles will be both sealed and leveled.
In 2024, Arkansas was one of the first states to install wrong-way detection sensors primarily on Interstate 40, 55, and 555 to try and curb the number of wrong-way collisions in the state. While traveling in the wrong direction is not frequent, it often results in fatalities. Wrong-way detection systems include vehicle sensors, television cameras, illuminators, hardware controllers, warning devices and communications equipment that notify motorists if they are traveling in the wrong directions. If the sensors detect a motorist traveling in the wrong direction, LED lights will flash to notify the motorist of their mistake. There is also an alarm that will be sent to the ARDOT Traffic Management Center so crews can report and track the motorist.