U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-AR4, visited El Dorado on Monday, where he participated in a roundtable discussion with officials from the Arkansas Department of Transportation and the City of El Dorado about ongoing highway projects in south Arkansas.
Since 1991, highway officials at all levels have been working to establish Interstate-69, a north-south roadway that, when complete, will run from Port Huron, Michigan to Laredo, Texas.
ARDoT officials on Monday gave Westerman an update on the project's progression, which is ongoing but stalled in some areas as the state awaits federal funding, said Lorie Tudor, ARDoT director.
"We just provided the congressman with an update of where we're at on the future Interstate-69 corridor through Arkansas... The Mississippi River bridge is an issue because it's so expensive. It's about a $2 billion price tag; $1.2 billion is Arkansas's portion," Tudor said. "For a small, rural state like Arkansas, there's just no way we can really fund that without federal assistance."
However, work has started on Arkansas's portion of the interstate, with two-lane sections under construction in Drew County and work scheduled to start on additional length on that road in 2025. Environmental approval has been secured for the part of the road that will run through Union County.
"What we've funded to date, which is the eastern leg of the Monticello bypass over to where the approach for the new Mississippi River bridge will take off – so actually from McGehee to just south of Monticello – we have that segment funded for two of the ultimate four-lane," Tudor said. "We've bought the right-of-way for the future four-lane divided facility, but right now, we're just building two lanes as an interim until the funding's in place."
No target date for completion has been set for the project, Tudor said. When completed, Interstate-69 will span more than 2,700 miles, including 184 in Arkansas. Of those 184, 42 miles have so far been completed.
Westerman said the project could be an economic boon not only to Arkansas but to the country as a whole.
"I-69 has big national implications – you connect the ports in Texas with the Great Lakes, essentially, and it goes through an area of the country that doesn't really have interstate highway access right now," he said. "It's not just important to south and southeast Arkansas; it's important to all the states along these corridors."
In 2021, Congress ended a moratorium on directed spending – also known as earmarks – after a decade. Westerman did not make any funding requests that year, but this year, he asked for $26.9 million to be directed to three projects in Arkansas: improvements to the U.S. 82 corridor, an extension of the Texarkana Regional Airport and for efforts at flood management along the Red River.
He said on Monday that these directed spending opportunities could be an avenue for Arkansas to get funding for projects like I-69, which is a Congressionally Designated High Priority Corridor.
"I'm looking to see where I can best direct some federal funding... Since we brought back the directed funding, nearly every project I've requested money for has been for highway transportation," Westerman said. "We'll be working with ARDoT and looking at areas where we might can make requests."
The congressman also heard about progress being made on U.S. 82, which includes the widening of Hillsboro Street in El Dorado. Tudor said work is ongoing on relocating utilities located along the street. Over the past month, several buildings along Hillsboro have been razed, while some local businesses have moved back from the street to allow for the widening.
"We're hoping that's completed toward the end of next year, early in '25, so as soon as that's handled, we'll be taking bids on that," Jared Wiley, chief engineer for pre-construction at ARDoT, said on Monday.
Added Tudor, "It's been a big challenge to get all that moved out of the way and then be able to start the widening project, but when we get through, it's going to have a shared-use path, three lanes, sidewalks, and it's just going to be really a beautiful road through El Dorado. It's going to be fabulous for the city."
Westerman said the work on Highway 82, which connects Texas to Mississippi through south Arkansas, is important for the area's economy, as is I-69.
"Work that's being done on Highway 82, that's very critical for the region... I think it's a consensus in the area that Highway 82 is a high priority," he said. "A project like I-69 is very critical... I think it's just going to make the goods that are produced here less costly to get to the markets. Trade goes both ways, so when you've got a good interstate highway system – I mean, look at the deposits of lithium down here, it's an opportunity to draw new industry, new manufacturing and grow jobs."
El Dorado Mayor Paul Choate said he's looking forward to seeing the Hillsboro project completed. He said he hopes to see I-69 finished as well, but given the more than three decades already spent on the project, he doesn't know if he will.
"For the people locally, I think 82 will help in a great way. In all probability, I won't live to see I-69, or travel on it; I just think the big bottleneck on that is getting it across the Mississippi, and they're looking at a $1 billion-plus price tag on that, and I know that'll slow the process down," Choate said. "But anything that can be done to bring four-lane access or better roads to south Arkansas, I'm all for it."
Dr. David Rankin speaks to U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman at the El Dorado-Union County Chamber of Commerce during a meeting on highway projects in Arkansas on Monday, June 26. (Caitlan Butler/News-Times)