On April 16, state transportation officials kicked off the department’s Connecting Arkansas Program, a $1.8 billion project that is funded through a 2012 voter-approved, half-cent sales tax set to expire in 2023.
“It’s a great day for Arkansas, a great day for northwest Arkansas” Scott Bennett, director of the state Highway and Transportation Department, said.
Bennett said the highway program will create and sustain about 40,000 jobs across Arkansas, as well as connect different parts of the state with four-lane highways.
Bennett also announced the state received permission to label portions of Interstate 540 and Highway 71 in western Arkansas as Interstate 49. The Arkansas section of the road will eventually be incorporated into a multi-lane highway running from Kansas City, Mo., to New Orleans.
The first of the program’s 31 projects is a six-mile portion of the new Bella Vista Bypass from Bentonville to Hiwasse in northwestern Arkansas. The bypass is a multi-phased project to construct two lanes of what will be a 19-mile, four-lane interstate.
The other 30 projects in the Connecting Arkansas Program include widening and improvement to highways statewide.
