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Walnut Ridge, Others See Development Boost from I-57 Designation

2 min read

Walnut Ridge Mayor Charles Snapp has a new silver bullet to use when he pitches his town to businesses and industries that are looking to expand.

In the near future, Walnut Ridge will be a stop along a major interstate highway. U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., introduced a provision in the 2017 federal transportation budget bill last week that will designate U.S. 67 from North Little Rock to Walnut Ridge as the future Interstate 57.

It will be part of a much larger interstate highway system that will someday connect Little Rock with St. Louis and Chicago with an expanded corridor.

“It’s going to open a lot of doors,” Snapp told Arkansas Business. “This is a huge development for this part of the state. It’s bigger than a big deal.”

Local leaders have fought for many years to build an interstate between Little Rock and major cities to the north. Missouri has expanded U.S. 67 on its side of the border, but from Pocahontas to Corning, which sits on the Missouri border, an interstate quality highway has not been constructed.

In recent years, the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department has completed expansion projects along a new U.S. 67 roadway from Newport to Walnut Ridge. The last 16 mile section that will connect the towns with a four-lane highway is expected to be finished in June, according to AHTD.

A new interstate will help to propel economic development in northeast Arkansas, and it will help alleviate traffic burdens on the state’s other interstates, Boozman said in a news release.

Still, roughly 40 more miles of U.S. 67 leading to the Missouri border will have to be upgraded to interstate quality. It would cost in hundreds of millions of dollars to complete the project, and it could take years for the construction to be completed.

How that project would be paid for, and how long it would take to be completed, is unknown. But Boozman said the I-57 designation is a step in the direction of completing this project.

Snapp knows it could take years to finish, but he thinks the interstate designation is a significant step in the right direction. A major truck stop company is considering a location near Walnut Ridge, and that pitch just got a little easier, the mayor said.

The city’s industrial park will be within a mile of the proposed interstate, and the town is changing its marketing maps to show the new designation, according to the city’s website.

“We’ve got U.S. 67 (I-57), U.S. 412, and U.S. 63, in our general area,” the mayor said. “We have a massive airport, and access to two railroads. We’re within a few miles of I-555. If an industry needs to transports its goods or products, this is the perfect spot for them.”

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