GONE: The Second Street exit from I-30. Photo by Brian Chilson.

A friend supplies a take on the double-dose of frustration that the Arkansas Department of Transportation has created with its billion-dollar concrete ditch I-30 project through the heart of Little Rock, combined with Interstate 430 bridge and related work at Highway 10.

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I feel his pain:

It was a stroke of genius by the ArDIOTS to convert I-430 north into a goat path while at the same time detonating I-30 through LR/NLR, which included destroying all entrances, exits, crossover bridges (Ninth Street span is long gone) and frontage roads while closing (and sometimes ripping up) major arteries within a half-mile of I-30 in both cities.

I’ll likely no longer be on this plane of existence when they carpet-bomb the I-630 to I-30 interchange. I figure it’ll be easier to get from anywhere in LR to the Kabul Airport than to the LR aerodrome.

Since ArDot is fond of spaghetti routes, they’ll recommend (mandate?) taking South University to 65th Street, go east, cross under any remnants of I-30, to state 367 north, to West Roosevelt Road, to East Roosevelt Road (wave at Homer) and whup a left on Airport Road (soon to be renamed Gov. Sarah Sanders Huckabee Boulevard). Cash in your Dillards stock before leaving home so you can pay for airport parking.

The silver lining is that all of this is giving migraines to Conway and Cabot commuters. A golden lining would be for all of this to get even worse and make it impossible for legislators to enter LR. And since they hate improving infrastructure they won’t have broadband in Lonsdale and Flippin to access Zoom meetings.

I just can’t leave this alone. I swear to you there’s no better frisson of risky adventure than to be funneled into a narrow concrete channel with a Peterbilt’s giant wheels rolling six inches from your head at 65 mph. Steer one inch to the right or one inch to the left and you’re suddenly just another fatal on the weather wire.

Anyone who listens to the Arkansas Times‘ weekly podcast will know why this resonates with me.

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Last week, I ranted about how difficult it is to get to and from the airport these days.

SLOWER GOING: Once you get on the city grid. Photo by Brian Chilson

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Finding a good way to cross the I-30 ditch to reach the Clinton Library or the reviving “East Village” area these days is a challenge.

More troubling is a problem city “leaders” don’t want to acknowledge: The Interstate 30 project now and FOREVER will do immense harm to the city’s downtown traffic grid. The exit to Highway 10 at Second Street is gone. The single exit funneling traffic to Sixth Street (gridlocked periodically at rush hour) will be a continuing nightmare, even after the work is completed. More traffic on Sixth, where street parking has been allowed, will be a problem.

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Where will all that traffic go after it is dumped off the freeway at the single downtown exit? You can already see: Backed-up traffic on Chester, trying to reach LaHarpe (Highway 10) by alternate means. There’s a lot of traffic heading to the Riverdale area.  It’s a mess folks. And the billion dollars being spent by the state doesn’t include a dime for the city grid. Maybe the mayor, a fan of the I-30 ditch, can find some sales tax money to pay for the damage the state is causing to help people in Cabot get home a minute or two faster.

North Little Rock suffering currently because of closure of major exit at Broadway.

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