
Mark Windle, vice president of Arkansas operations for Manhattan Road & Bridge.
Perhaps the trickiest part of the $87 million Interstate 630 widening project underway in Little Rock was replacing the Hughes Street bridge, planners said, but the work is finished, 23 days early.
The prompt finish was trumpeted Monday by Manhattan Road & Bridge, the contractor that started work on the project, designed to unclog a major artery into downtown, in mid-July. Manhattan, which took down the old bridge and built an entirely new, longer span, would have faced a $3,800-a-day penalty if the bridge work had not been completed within 96 days.
What’s more, the company qualified for the maximum incentive payment authorized in the contract, 20 days at $3,800, or $76,000 on the positive side. “This is a significant payment,” said Mark Windle, vice president of Arkansas operations for the Tulsa company, “but a greater positive to the traveling public and our neighbors that use this road for access.”
Manhattan Road & Bridge, part of the Manhattan Construction Group, is widening the interstate from six to eight lanes from University Avenue to the Baptist Medical Center exit, a 2.5-mile stretch. The Hughes Street work reopens a route to thousands of daily motorists. The I-630 work area itself carries 100,000 vehicles a day and is expected to handle up to 140,000 within 20 years.
“Though we experienced above-average rainfall for August and September, we were able to allocate additional resources to this project,” Windle said. “Our crews were able to dismantle the old bridge and erect the new quality structure with minimal disruption” to interstate traffic.
“Motorists who use Hughes Street to gain access to neighborhoods and thoroughfares north and south of I-630 have been patient with our work, and now they’ll have a new bridge on which to travel with just slightly more than two months of inconvenience,” Windle said in a statement. His company is also contracted to replace bridges over South Rodney Parham Road in Rock Creek. The full widening project is expected to be completed in early 2020, and Manhattan has very real incentives for finishing early.
“For the entire project, the state has valued days past the deadline at $198,800 a day, so obviously it’s in our best interest to get through quickly,” Windle told Arkansas Business as the project began. The firm also stands to reap cash incentives for finishing the entire project early. “We are excited to be moving forward to the much more significant goal of completing the overall project in 590 days,” Windle said Monday.
The work is part of the statewide Connecting Arkansas Program, a $1.8 billion effort hailed as the most ambitious highway construction ever in Arkansas. The 200-mile, 36-project program is aimed at improving capacity and traffic congestion. It is funded with 70 percent of the proceeds from a 10-year, 0.5 percent sales tax approved in a statewide vote in 2012. The other 30 percent is turned back to local governments for road and street projects. The statewide tax will sunset in July 2023.
Manhattan Road & Bridge has offices on West 65th Street in Little Rock and on Jefferson Street in Springdale.