Posted on 05/01/2019 10:45:15 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
With an estimated cost of about $787 million, a public-private partnership on a tolled four-lane Interstate 49 extension from Alma to Fort Smith with a bridge over the Arkansas River has been deemed “not viable” by the Arkansas Department of Transportation.
Results of the I-49 Alternative Delivery Study, approved by the Arkansas Highway Commission in 2016, were presented Wednesday at the Frontier Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Policy Board meeting.
Andrew Brewer, assistant division engineer for ARDOT, said a tolled 14-mile extension was deemed “not viable” based on projected costs and revenue.
“The bottom line is assuming an optimal toll rate of 15 cents per mile ... the gross revenue over a 40-year time period would be about $243 million,” Brewer told the MPO group of local municipal and business leaders “So basically, a huge net shortfall. The $243 million would not even pay for the operation and maintenance of the facility. It would not pay for the construction at all.”
The study concluded, Brewer added, that tolling or a public-private partnership are “not viable at this time.”
About $1.2 billion so far has been spent on I-49 in Arkansas, including about $116 million on I-49 from U.S. 71 south of Fort Smith to Arkansas 22 near Barling, Brewer added. And “costs keeping going up,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at swtimes.com ...
$776 million (non-tolled option) for 14 miles??? Seriously???
But then again, the Intercounty Connector (Maryland 200) cost about 2.3 billion dollars to build, for 16 miles or so.
The problem with the Barling to Alma interstate is that there’s a perfectly good interstate connection through Fort Smith. It basically makes the connection on a curve maybe 5-10 miles and 20 minutes longer. So the road isn’t particularly necessary in the first place. In the second place, a relatively high toll would cause folks to simply take the current route and add a few minutes to the trip.
The solution for a toll road is to do what they did in Austin - make the free road so bad that folks that can afford it don’t care about the costs to avoid the mess down I-35.
That includes the bridge over the Arkansas River, which has to be high enough for river traffic. Also the land on either side of the the river is low lying floodplain so the approaches to the the bridge have to be elevated too.
It also includes modifications to the I-49 and I-40 interchange.
The bridge and highway will go south from that interchange and link up with the Fort Chaffee stretch of AR 549 (Future I-49) that runs from Barling to US 71
https://www.google.com/maps/@35.3531388,-94.3486506,43547m/data=!3m1!1e3
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