The state highway department’s heavy-handed tactics to speed its plan to widen the city-splitting concrete Interstate 30 gulch through the heart of Little Rock is drawing some attention from the Little Rock City Board.
At a board agenda meeting Tuesday, there was mention of a potential future resolution objecting to the so-called Arkansas Department of Transportation’s announcement from Director Scott Bennett that it would not fund some federally aided projects in Central Arkansas until Metroplan changes some wording in its transportation plan to explicitly approve wider freeways. The resolution could be considered at the next City Board meeting.
Metroplan believes the wording change isn’t required for release of federal highway money. Also, critics of the action contend a
Can a majority of the City Board be mustered to express unhappiness with the effort by highway officials to hold highway projects hostage to fast-track the gulch? Sadly, some directors have made it clear that whatever the road building lobby wants (aka