Friday’s (Aug. 22) groundbreaking ceremony for the 3.1 million stretch of Interstate 49 that will include an Arkansas River bridge was equal parts celebration of the progress and awareness of how much more of the “high priority” interstate remains to be built in Arkansas.
Several hundred people – including Gov. Sarah Sanders, former Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and U.S. Reps. Bruce Westerman, R-Hot Springs, and Steve Womack, R-Rogers – gathered near the Barling City Park to recognize the almost $300 million section of I-49.
The Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT) in October 2024 awarded Tulsa-based Manhattan Road & Bridge a $282.5 million contract to construct the 3.1-mile stretch of I-49 between Highway 22 in Barling and Gun Club Road in Crawford County. The interchange with Arkansas Highway 22 in Barling is already complete, as is a short section of I-49 between Barling and U.S. 71 just south of Fort Smith.
The project primarily includes a bridge across the Arkansas River, and is the first of four projects needed to build the almost 14-mile segment between Barling and the I-49 and I-40 interchange near Alma.
According to ARDOT, the bridge will include a river relief structure, and ramps at the Gun Club Road interchange, which is in Crawford County.
The awarded segment is funded by a combination of regular federal-aid highway funding, federal grant funding, Congressionally designated spending, and state funds, according to ARDOT. ARDOT estimates the cost of the total 14-mile project at $1.3 billion. This job is estimated to be complete by early 2029, according to ARDOT.
‘PROMISE AND PROGRESS’
ARDOT Director Jared Wiley said the segment indicates “a great amount of promise and progress,” but said much more work is ahead to complete a nationally important interstate. I-49 was designated in 1991 by the Federal Highway Administration as a “High-Priority Corridor” because it will eventually connect Canada with New Orleans through middle America.
Westerman said the entire 14-mile segment that is planned between Alma and Barling is not just important for the Fort Smith metro and Arkansas, but is critical for the nation. Sanders said the segment will be “a catalyst for the entire region to thrive.”
Wiley said 154 miles of the route remain to be built in Arkansas, with around 140 of those miles between Fort Smith and Texarkana. But he said the river bridge section is “arguably the biggest lift” on the entire section through western Arkansas.
Former Gov. Hutchinson was praised by all speakers for his leadership in gaining voter approval in 2020 of Amendment 101, which created a half-cent sales tax to fund highway projects in the state. Wiley said the I-49 river bridge would not be possible without the money from Amendment 101.
“It’s one of the most exciting days since I’ve left the governorship, and it’s simply because this project is so important to the state and to the River Valley,” Hutchinson told Talk Business & Politics after the event. “And of course I lived 19 years in Fort Smith and I have driven through Y City and I’ve driven through to Texarkana and I know what this means to the economy of our state and our country.”
NEXT STEPS
While it’s not concrete and steel, Wiley announced Friday that in the next 12 to 18 months there will be crews working on I-49 route evaluation between Greenwood and Y City. That route is between 50-55 miles.
Womack said funding to complete the rest of I-49 in Arkansas is not likely to come from the next few years of federal fiscal budgets, but he is optimistic the segment will receive funding to ensure progress continues. He also said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has agreed to come to the area for a tour of I-49.
“He’ll come down and we’ll look at what we completed north of the (Bobby Hopper) tunnel, we’ll look at what is left to complete south of the tunnel in this Alma to Barling area, and maybe even a little further south,” Womack said in an interview after the event. “I’ll give him a bird’s-eye view of what we still have left to do.”
Womack also praised former U.S. Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt, R-Harrison, who “built relationships” and worked on bipartisan actions in Congress to find funding in the early 1990s for the segment of I-49 between Alma and Fayetteville.
“Frankly, we better get back to that or we’re going to be in for some rough sledding for a considerable period of time,” Womack told the crowd.
Arkansas highway officials estimated in early 2022 that it would cost $4.1 billion to complete 136 miles of I-49 from Fort Smith to the Texas state line. Considering inflation, that estimate is likely higher.