After a series of delays, the long-awaited Interstate 30 construction project in Saline County is finally set to reach completion at the end of December.
Rex Vines, chief of operations for the Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT), said in an interview with Little Rock Public Radio that final touches are being done around mile marker 111 –the last stretch of construction– including concrete finishings, guard rails and overhead signage.
“The project has improved, not only the pavement, but the traffic flow all the way to Highway 70,” Vines said. “It’s great to see traffic flowing and reduced congestion.”
Over the last 11 years, Arkansas roadways have been undergoing construction through the Connecting Arkansas Program (CAP). According to their website, CAP is the largest highway construction program ever organized by ARDOT, worth a total of $1.8 billion.
As of late 2024, 29 out of 31 CAP projects have been completed. The I-30 widening project in Saline County, aimed at expanding the interstate to six lanes between mile markers 111 and 116, is still under construction. The project broke ground in May 2019 under the Johnson Brothers Corporation with a $187.3 million bid.
Johnson Brothers began the project with a set completion date for Nov. 19, 2022. Vines said the project experienced delays that prolonged the original completion date.
“Most of the things that really pushed this job back, there were underground things that we did not anticipate,” Vines said. “We’ve found areas where the dirt was a lot harder than anticipated, ran into rock where they were trying to go down. They’ve had to change their methods.”
In response to questions about project delays, Vines says that with any big project comes unforeseen circumstances such as change orders and road conditions. Due to the delays, Johnson Brothers requested a change order for an extended contract completion date to April 20, 2023, which ARDOT accepted.
April 2023 came and went. The I-30 construction project was yet to be completed, continuing to cause delays for Saline County residents and Arkansas drivers.
Vines says poor road conditions contributed to the influx in traffic on I-30.
“Because it was constricted with an existing right of way, the traffic was really compressed by walls,” he said. “When you have pavement falling apart and you have traffic really constricted, it causes a lot of problems.”
Vines states that during this time there was a rise in reported blown tires and vehicle accidents in the nearly five-and-a-half mile stretch.
In that same interview, ARDOT Assistant Chief Engineer for Construction Chad Adams said the department has seen a decrease in fatal accidents since implementing efforts to reduce speeding in August 2023.
“We saw a decrease in accidents when we implemented some speed enforcement trailers,” Adams said. “Once we had a method in place to kind of control the speeding through there, it really decreased the number of accidents through the work zone.”
Despite roadway safety, public concerns and high road user costs, Vines said Johnson Brothers did not show signs of haste towards the project's completion.
“Our resident engineers, who are on site, they meet with them regularly to go through the progress of the job,” he said. “For a large portion of those meetings their progress would slip, so their dates would slip out.”
As of February 2024, Johnson Bros’ estimated completion date for the project was pushed to January 2025.
Due to the company’s lack of urgency on the project – as they passed their contract completion date for a second time – ARDOT came to a unanimous decision in a commission meeting on Feb. 13, 2024 to recommend Johnson Brothers for default in breach of contract.
“Part of the reason we moved to the default recommendation was because they were not filling that part of the contract. They were getting behind on progress reports and we didn’t feel like the progress reports we were getting were accurate,” said Vines.
According to Vines, the project was taken over by a new superintendent, Chris Williams, in August 2023.
Over the first three years, the project was supervised by a superintendent Vines stated to be “not a strong superintendent,” explaining that, to an extent, poor management was part of the project's issue, as well as not utilizing the resources that were available to them during the job.
The decision to hold off on placing Johnson Brothers in default came during an ARDOT commission meeting on April 4, 2024 after the company proposed a different course of action under Williams.
To ensure the project completion date did not get pushed back again, Vines said in the commission meeting that Johnson Brothers proposed new work schedules and began subcontracting out work with other companies, increasing their man hours 160% since the threat of default in February.
Vines stated in an email that ARDOT approved a second change order by Johnson Brothers for a third extended contract date to July 22, 2024.
If Johnson Brothers falls behind again, ARDOT would revisit the threat to default. For now, Johnson Brothers is facing a charge of $77,000 a day in Road User Costs and $750 per day in Liquidated Damages.
Currently, Johnson Brothers has been assessed 108 days (the last adjusted project completion date), totaling $7,867,000 in combined fees. This total has been withheld from project progress estimates (work performed).
Although construction is nearing completion, Johnson Brothers and their involvement with Arkansas residents is not over. The company is currently facing a lawsuit on behalf of negligence that resulted in a man's death.
Saline County resident Jacob Benedict, 29, was on his way to work in the early morning of June 14, 2024 when he was killed in a multi-vehicle collision near mile marker 111 on Interstate 30.
A police report on the accident states that at 6 a.m., a four car pile-up occurred after a cloud of construction dust obstructed the view of drivers heading westbound on the interstate. Three out of four drivers would walk away from the crash, while Jacob Benedict died on the scene.
Johnson Brothers declined to comment for this story.
With construction now coming to an end, smooth lanes are now taking the place of construction roadways promoting safe and easy travels.
