ALC-Highway Commission Review and Advisory Subcommittee
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- October 2, 2026
Speaker 1
0:13
and members you have a handout on your desk that is basically the agenda if you want to follow our follow through your handout you wanna introduce yourself sir thank you Mr chairir Jared Wiley, director
Chair
Unverified
0:28
of ardott and if I may I want to thank our highway commission members here we have Commissioner Marie Holder and commissioner Jerry Halsey here with us and a lot of my administrative team in case you guys ask me a question I can't answer somebody there should be able to help us thank
Speaker 1
0:45
you all for being here now if I under in cent payton is tied up in another meeting so you had a letter I think you were gonna present or talk about on the before exhibit the efficiency review yes sir yes sir I will you proceed whenever you're
Speaker 10
1:06
ready right so that letter you you referenced I'm happy to report
Chair
Unverified
1:17
that that letter wrapped up our efficiency review study that we've been working on for so many years we reported to you guys multiple times and then today will be my last report on that efficiency review we've implemented since our last meeting in September, the five remaining recommendations so we've completed those and all those are now active and progressing forward I want to show you a screenshot though from one of the more exciting pieces to come out of that recommendation
this is our maintenance dashboard and we also rolled out one for construction projects late last year but the public now can go to our website and pull up this map and it will show them where we have active maintenance work going on in the state or maintenance work that our crews have completed in the last 12 months and it shows them what type of work it is when we expect it to start and and end and and all that information is right there at their fingertips so that's one of the great things that came out of this study.
Speaker 10
2:23
So with that I'll I'll close that report and take any
Speaker 13
2:28
questions you guys have. any questions on exhibit B if
Speaker 10
2:35
not we will go to exhibit C adam C is our our quarterly report of land conveyances we send this over every quarter it just simply lists out the property that we've sold that the commission owns and that we have
Chair
Unverified
2:48
sold and this report was submitted there are4 properties for surplus properties that we
sold since the last meeting. we
have any questions from anyone seeing none yes sir
Speaker 10
3:08
right so in itemd is our infrastructure investment and jobs actct reports these are cumulative reports that we also submit quarterly since our last meeting we've submitted two reports so they're cumulative so I'll highlight the December
report to date since the inception of the infrastructure investments and jobb Act it's been about four years since that came about that's as
Chair
Unverified
3:32
a reminder that's our federal transportation bill so that's our regular federal funding that we get at ardott to take care of the highways we have obligated3.14 billion dollars of that funding and that's cumulative to date and so we'll submit that next quarterly report to you guys in april.
Speaker 13
3:55
say no questions maybe everybody did their homework ahead of time
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
4:08
hey question you need a question Senator Hill question thank you sir we're moving pretty fast through all this today Director Wiley I remember back in the day whenever you first started that we'd go through every little detail on here just to make sure we all understood everything and knew everything and you're getting a little more experienced in kind of hitting the highlights for us what what what are we missing in the parts that you skipped is
there anything in there that that we're missing that you did not go into that's one question secondcond part is what are
Chair
Unverified
4:35
missing I don't think we're missing self serving you can tell right yes sir so let's answer the second one first we've got a lot of great things coming in Lone Oak County. we've got our Interstate57 projects widening projects wrapping up soon ahead of schedule. that work zone has has performed well, proud of that. we just awarded a big contract to Weaver Bailey
Contractors to do that Highway5 interchange so we'll be kicking that work off this summer and of course the standard resurfacing projects and all those things are still going on inloan Oak County and and state w ide I don't there's nothing in here that that I skipped over you guys I'm open book you guys ask me anything you want but we're just working hard to deliver the program but we appreciate everything you do and and
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
5:17
thank you for being being straightforward and honest with everyone here with everything you have going on. I think you're doing a great job and want to commend you and your
team for everything y'all have done. thank you senator appreciate that
Speaker 20
5:33
p re s ent ative oops excuse me Representative Richmond if
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
5:46
you Am I recognized? All right thank you in da yeah you won't recognize me much longer anyway I I just you know out of district52 we got interstate49
coming last week you guys put on a couple of meetings one up around Greenwood and the other one down at Waltern. I just want to commend you on the professionalism and just how informative those meetings were and and the great job that your guys did out there I mean it was just really a good bang up job and I heard a lot of positive comments and I appreciate y'all going to the trouble doing that on this so thank you very much thank youpresentative I'm proud of the team they
Speaker 3
6:22
they they work hard and deliver well for our
Chair
Unverified
6:29
people. I was also happy and thankful that we had such great turnout they set records at those meetings we had over400 people at the first one and several 100 at the second one so thank you for that we're working hard to be good neighbors
over there as we develop Interstate49. en ator de director recognized for
Senator Tyler Dees
Unverified
6:51
a question thank you Mr chair. George Weer thank you for your time today just had kind of a broad general question when
when we look at and if you can just maybe get some directional answers so when we look at regular maintenance expenses versus new highway new road development percentage of total spend can you help give me what that breakdown might be or those two buckets I would imagine the majority of the budgeted dollars thatardott spends whether federal or state would be for maybe new highway
development like the bigger ticket items but I'm not sure if that's trued would you say the majority of the budget goes to regular maintenance or
Chair
Unverified
7:38
for new projects new developments so the budgetary expenses the construction dos that we have so the projects that we let to contract we budget about a billion dollars a year for that work.75% of that goes to taking care of the system that we have at least75% of that funding goes to that in addition to that all the maintenance administration and operation
funding that we spend goes to taking care of that system so overwhelmingly the dollar goes to taking care of a system that we have that's the reason we have so many new location routes or some interstates that we haven't finished yet it's just because we don't have the the funding to tackle all those with the the size of system that we have our dot Arkansas has the 12th largest highway system in the nation and of course we're not 12th largest in revenue so our team does a great job of working within the bounds and the means that we have which sometimes leaves us wanting a
Senator Tyler Dees
Unverified
8:31
little more to build new and you've you've quoted this to me in the past but how many
Chair
Unverified
8:38
thousands of miles is is under that jurisdiction for so the latest numbers is about 16,300 miles of of center line highways if you look at it on a lane by lane basis it's just under40,000 miles and about737400 bridges I don't have the exact number but we're we have a quite a large system larger than than our population base can support as well as some other states can for sure
Senator Tyler Dees
Unverified
9:02
so one more time when with all the growth and development and
requests for new projects we need to make sure folks remember that the majority overwhelming majority of the budget goes to maintaining the current road system is what I heard you say that's correct yes
Chair
Unverified
9:18
otherwise yes yes sir otherwise you know we we can't provide the level of service that's expected for economic development for travelers providing safe roads that are relatively smooth our system you know half of our system carries about 90% of our traffic and we focus our
Speaker 18
9:33
efforts on that and and we do the best we can with the resources we have thank you for
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
9:50
keeping our travelers safe. thank you Senator Johnson you recognize haddn't quite come up oh it's on thank you Mr Chairman for allowing me as nonmember to ask questionsrector Wiley thank you one I wanna compliment you on your comments in the paper this morning about our our
beautification this is not just a highway and a aesthetic thing this is a tourism and an economic issue and I appreciate that the work you're doing and the the coordination with Key Arkansas beautiful commission we we've got to work harder literally right before this day before yesterday I got a call from a constituent in Yaleville not a constituent a former constituent who's retired and moved to Yalevile and he was just really upset with with our our trash situation and of course in that
part of the state you know it's so pretty they they really notice it maybe more than we do here in central Arkansas because we're trying not to get hit by another car but I I'm really concerned that you know maybe you know everybody kind of nodded just kind of like our fighting you know smoking and things. Yeah, yeah we all agree smoking s oh and littering that's that's bad too but I really to the point and and frankly I really won't I will pick on the city of littlettleRock where I think
it's one of the worst I've ever seen but are do you have the resources you need now to to address this problem and and if not where would we how could we help is guess what I was gonna say and Mr Chairman if you'd allow me a really short follow up after his answer thank you senator I appreciate the the compliments and we're
Speaker 9
11:27
we're working hard. I have a slide in here today
Chair
Unverified
11:30
to tell you a little more about our litter prevention and our litter
control efforts but you know that that question's tough oh there we go you know I say you know all of us we can all whether it's our personal budget our our business or our workplace we can do more with more right and uhardott spends about 8 million a year fighting litter $8 million a year already and we're trying to find ways to be more effective and impactful you've seen us in some of our metro areas we've created crews
that are just they solely their sole purpose is is picking up litter and sweeping the the shoulders it's a it's a real problem out there we do want to talk about some potential legislation at the next session in 2027 about about litter but you know we can do more with more senator for sure some of the things I'll I'll just jump ahead to it some of the messaging we've we've been working on this year it's really piqued the interest of some folks nationwide and they see some of the innovative things that our team's trying to do and
they bring us options and solutions and we're we're exploring those but to to latch on to that and do more it costs more
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
12:45
money absolutely and if I could Mr Chairman quick follow up
go ahead back in 2019 of course we had the serious flooding all over but especially on the Arkansas River uhardot came up with a plan to alleviate the area just to the west of the toadsuck ridge and there was a plan and it it was I won't say it was
shel but y'all I think kind of went back to the drawing board to to maybe modify the solution because at one point we were talking about having that bridge closed for a period of time which would be a lot of problem for people that that live in Perry County and commute across that bridge into conway where are we today on that and the last I heard there was a possible solution that would not require the total closing of the bridge where are we on that sir you're spot on so we
Chair
Unverified
13:34
did go back to the drawing board after we had those public meetings which
uhpresentative Richmond mentioned they're so important we heard from the public that they want us to go a little different path so we tweaked our design and we really reduced the impacts to the public travelling ing public through that process and so pro progress is is being made we're actually in the acquisition phase now we're buying right of way and so as soon as that rider boy is completed that purchase is done we'll move the necessary utilities and then take bids for construction so I don't know exactly what date that is I was
thinking it was 2027 but I'll check on that and get back to you
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
14:13
with that exact date but at least at this point that your plan while we might have a traffic light or something it's would not at this point require the total closure of of the bridge
Chair
Unverified
14:26
use the automated signal that'll help flag traffic during those short periods. Now you know with any project there may be a a short duration closure or two to to hang some beans or things like that but but no there's no
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
14:39
long term closure plan. thank you very much
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
14:49
thank you Mr Chair Representative Pinner you're recognized thank you Mr Chair. Director Wiley, I first want to say thank you for you and your staff for the continuous dialogue that we've had on different projects and north central Arkansas and also your commitment and staff's commitment on highway41262 as you know that's been a very deep and passionate subject for my constituents
and and just kind of want to follow up where we're at on some of those commitments that we have and just maybe a little bit into the future
Chair
Unverified
15:19
since that's a priority corridor for sure yeah great great questionpresentative of when we started talking about the abstin sales tax and the the potential to make that permanent through amendment 101. that group in north central Arkansas came to us about412 and the the desire for more improvements and there was3 there was three segments of passing lanes that the group brought forward and said hey if
if we support this can you deliver these passing lanes for us and we we passed them in order to the commission did and said yes if if this get s passed we will build those projects and so we're underway with those now they're those projects are in various stages of development representative I don't know exactly when the next one will be bid but I can send you that information but to my recollection there are5 specific passing lane segments one of those is outside bellefonte and that one is ongoing but we had those three priority locations and we are developing projects in those
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
16:14
areas well again and I was driving throughelfont the other day and it's nice to see the the regression of that project and and I know folks are happy and again just thank you very much for your recommitment on making highway41262 at priority and I look forward to working with you on that. thank you thank you Mr Chair. director I didn't mean for that many questions come
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
16:36
thrown at you whenever I just wanted to kind of get some conversations started a while ago I I guess my question is I don't know if it's just been coffee shop talk
or what it is or maybe if there was an article in the papers is there any noise being made at all about Interstate40 from Lone Oak to LittleRock being expanded to to three lane
Chair
Unverified
16:57
so it is on our on our long range plan of course we we have a project in the works now we're designing a project to get from440 over tourrowad and so that I expect we'll take bids on that project in the next few years and then we'll look to try to push that on further to31. we also are working on a project
starting in West Memphis coming a couple of miles west to try to start that process but winning I-40 is is another expensive proposition and you know we have to consider and contemplate innovative financing methods and so you know you may see us ask the commission to allow us to do a toll study to see if it's feasible to add a lane of40 if we toll it to try to help us get over that hurdle but yes we are working towards a a wider I-40 but the last price tag I
Speaker 24
17:47
saw on that was multiple billions of dollars but when
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
17:51
you say time frame we're talking 20 years 25 years what are you what are you looking
Speaker 46
17:56
to get that thing widened in conventional using conventional methods to Senator dees's
Chair
Unverified
18:00
question is going to take decades to get us there with the with the current status of our funding if tolling proves to be a viable option and of course we want to consider latching on to that I told I told Lane would would not allow trucks to use it most likely
but we have to work out those details to see if that's even feasible if it even pays for itself but if you go to
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
18:23
the toll lane at least wait till like30 years or so because that way I won't be driving by the end and we won't have to worry about that sir we make it easy on you
Speaker 46
18:31
with the sticker or something like they did in Oklahoma yeah yeah
Chair
Unverified
18:34
I paid those for my kids when they were in Texas. they'd send you a bill yes sir that's a great question though but in all seriousness it is it is needed we know that it's on our plan it's just there are so many worthy projects out there that we need
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
18:48
to tackle I assume according to Senator dees he's probably in northwest Arkansas and needs it worse than anywhere else.erly some needs there too
Representative Mike Holcomb
Unverified
19:03
absolutely thank you p re s ent ative Holcomb recognized thank you Mr Chairman uhrector Wi just real quickly I know during this we've we've had some workplace issues injuries those kind of things and I don't know during the session we strengthened some of the laws or give you some more tools to work
with such as cameras in the work zone checking on the cellphone give you some more leadway on your enforcement for speeding through those or any of those I know it's still an issue distracted driving still an issue but are are any of those having any effect or helping you any in your work zone places so yes sir so on
Chair
Unverified
19:41
the way over here I encountered two R dot vehicles with green lights flashing and saw this traffic on the interstate moving over and
giving those crew space so it made me it it warmed my heart you know yes those things are making an impact the mobile work zone legislation is making an impact but yes the cameras that you alluded to the workers on cameras I think this body passed that maybe two sessions ago we used them heavily on interstate30 and that work zone that we had there they're in use on57 now and on49 in Fayetteville and what we'd you know it's important for folks to realize and remember it's not about us writing tickets at
ardott. We don't get the funds from that we don't make revenue from writing a ticket. we'd rather not stop anyone it's about keeping those drivers and those workers safe we did expand that earlier this year to those cameras can detect cellphone use and and they do that by taking a picture of a vehicle for the windshield and you can see if a cellphone's in hand their privacy concerns about that those images are deleted immediately if there's no citation issued to
date we've not issued many citations we're trying to get the word out about the the use of cellphones in work zones and how unsafe that is but we do have that tool in our toolbox and we so appreciate you you guys giving that to us just want to make sure that the misinformation isn't prevalent so we've been working hard on social media to try to get the message out but wet we don't want to ride a ticket. we typically write a warning when we do ride anything but it's been impactful and it helps people think twice when they come in those work zones. Well
Representative Mike Holcomb
Unverified
21:23
thank you and and we we want everyone to go home every man on the job and and that's the reason for it and we know you're not just riding tickets but we want to keep our men safe and and we appreciate the hard work that they do in extreme conditions in arkansas the weather can be really extreme and dangerous on the highway but thank you again thank you Mr sheriff for
Speaker 13
21:48
taking the question sir don't see any other questions exhibiee I think yes sir yes sir
Chair
Unverified
21:57
expenditure of revenue so what this is back in 2019 there was a legislation passed that increased the gas tax slightly diesel tax it instituted fees on hybrid and electric vehicles so that those operators paid their fair share of the gas tax they were not paying and then we were allocated casino revenue to guarant a guaranteed amount of35 million dollars so with that legislation this report was required
and so this report just states out where those revenue sources come from and how we expend that funding so last year using that additional revenue source we were able to do do $98.7 million worth of projects and to back to senator D's questions this funding came to us with the requirement that it be spent on the maintenance of the system so it can't be used to build new it's used to take care of existing and so this report shows you where that funding was spent at last fiscal year OK thank you I may have a question from the previous
Representative Wade Andrews
Unverified
22:59
Representative Andrews thank you Miss Jaard. I just want to back up is there any updates on Highway 82 in South Arkansas expanding that keeping it around magnolia El Dorado area or even actually inette Laetyetette County working on the highway yes sir so it's also
Chair
Unverified
23:16
on our on our long range plan our four lane grid network our desire is to see a four lane 82 across southern Arkansas there are several projects that are on the books that we're working on to help us widen that piece to to four
lanes we have a project west the one you mentioned I think you're aware of it the the bridge near thefayette County that's gonna go
Representative Wade Andrews
Unverified
23:40
over the railroad tracks that that's a big issue there because it every time it
Chair
Unverified
23:44
rains a couple inches it floods that's a that's a that's a a great project and we're all but ready. The challenge there is just getting those final signoffs from the railroad company as soon as we have those we will be ready to take bids on that project so we're working through that with them actually Director tudor and I before she retired we went to Omaha and we met with their leadership about that project
and a and a few others and some things did move a little bit but you know challenges still exist and then you know you remember too we studied magnolia to see if there's a way to bypass magnolia to help that 82 Eastwest movement and we just adopted that study and so that's there as a planning guide as we see future revenues in the future maybe we can achieve some of these projects appreciate it yes sir seeing no other questions are we down to exhibit F?
Speaker 10
24:37
OK this is the report that we submit quarterly
Chair
Unverified
24:42
there are two quarters here its it lists all the projects that are $10 million or more in cost OK there's also in this report there's a it's called a couple of different sorts in the report but you also see a list of projects that changed since the last report and then there's an individual data sheet for each s specific project pardon me and you can see if the project is ahead of
schedule on schedule and how much funding we've allocated or spent to date for that work. and also we're only
Speaker 74
25:14
reporting on this this report here but the other reports are on your website right?li so yes sir yes sir any questions on
Speaker 10
25:22
exhibit F? seeing none you have anything else you
Chair
Unverified
25:31
would like to bring up sir yes sir if the committee would allow just a
couple other things I want to tell you about and Senator Johnson touched on one but first of all human trafficking has been a focus for our agency this year you know we we do projects we we do how we work but we we have a unique opportunity because we're in every county we want to make sure our our staff our4000 member workforce knows what to look for and and knows the signs of human trafficking when they see that so you're going to see us focus on this this year we had an administrative training we're now training all of our field
crews because they're out there everyday seeing things and they're gonna know the signs they're gonna know who to call they'll be trained by april 1st and then we're gonna train our office staff in LittleRock just want to make sure you guys knew about this and knew it was out there. People ask me sometimes why are you doing this and why now and I just say well why not now there's no time like the present this is a problem that's prevalent you know sex and labor trafficking is a big problem in our country and worldwide and we want to just make sure we're doing what we can to help and then you'll see us doing
that and also something else I wanted to give you some an update on the progress of and ask for your help if we could uhrector tudor started this program she got this started before she left streetsmart for those of you who haven't heard about it it's educational program that we use from federal aid safety dollars to build this first phase focusing on middle schoolers6th through 8th graders we developed a curriculum and partnership with the department of Education last summer we kicked it off last summer that picture on the right of your screen is that
kickoff we used Arkansas homemegrown talent these kids auditioned and were cast in this in this effort but there are 9 videos lesson plans interactive games it's all ready to go it's it's ready it's packaged up we'd love to see s schools using that we believe that prevention is is the best way to get behind the get these kids before they get behind the wheel of the car and we found like my kids at home they're ready to listen to peers than than people my age t talk at them so this is gonna be
a good way to reach them but our team has has worked hard to reach out to the largest school districts in the state the districts of the students that acted in the material there but we'll be working with teachers and education this summer we'll be presenting to some of them on their inservice days just about what the program is and what it can do for them and expanding into this next summer we're going to shoot material for high school age students so that we have it out there to talk about more adult topics such as drinking and driving
being aware of blind spots on commercial motor vehicles just all those things texting and driving things they need to know about as they as they start driving. that's that's that's moving forward wanted you to know about that and then lastly this this litter initiative you know our state's so beautiful natural state tourism and and those things have become our number one source of revenue and we want to make sure we're doing our part at our dot and the
litter problem is prevalent. I mentioned earlier we spent $8 million a year on litter. that's way too much that's funding we could be used to using to do something else if we didn't have to pick up all this all this stuff all the time so we we we aren't the inventors of the litter letter ideas but we did come up with the natural with the question mark because we're the natural state we wanted to try to step on some toes and get that out there to make sure people understand that every piece of litter they throw out it's it's cluttering up our state and it's something that my
staff has to deal with or some of the many volunteers that are out there trying to help with this effort like keep Arkansas beautiful so this week we've dubbed spring cleanup week and tomorrow is sp ring clean up day at ardott so every one of our operations team over 2500 people will be out on the highways picking up litter about 10% of our office staff also volunteer to help and so we will be out there you will see us out there tomorrow your constituents will see us out there with orange vests on with
trash bag in hand picking up a litter. Last year we picked up6,500 bags on the first day we did this ever and I expect tomorrow to to eclipse that
on that topic coming down65 I saw the employees out today and I I commented
Speaker 1
30:03
to my wife in the short stretch that we drove how many trash bags were already beside the it's just kind of blows your mind if you when you don't realize how there could be that much trash so they're did yeah they're I don't know if
they're supposed to be working today but they're they're starting early if they are so they were doing a good they were doing a good job thank you
Chair
Unverified
30:26
sir a lot of them are working all week doing that but tomorrow's the
Speaker 1
30:30
the heavy focus day for sure do you have any else anything else sir no sir appreciate your time any questions from the committee I want to thank you for your presentation and our commissioners for being here and all the employees and we just appreciate what all you do to help the roads and keep it safe we are adjourned
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. March 2026 Monthly Updates of the ALC Efficiency Study Recommendations Rules for Implementation (October-December 2025 and January-February 2026 reports are retained in file) [Exhibit B] ̶
C. Quarterly Land Conveyances [Exhibit C] ̶ Jared Wiley, Director, ARDOT
D. Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Reports [Exhibits D1-D2] ̶
E. Report of Annual Expenditure of Revenues as Required by A.C.A. § 26-64-104(b) [Exhibit E] ̶
F. 2nd Quarter Report on the Progress of Each Highway Construction Project of $10 million or More as Required by A.C.A. 27-65-107(a)(19) (2026 1st Quarter is retained in file) [Exhibit F] ̶
G. Other Business
H. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Speaker 1
Chair
Unverified
Speaker 10
Speaker 13
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
Speaker 20
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
Speaker 3
Senator Tyler Dees
Unverified
Speaker 18
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
Speaker 9
Speaker 46
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
Speaker 24
Representative Mike Holcomb
Unverified
Representative Wade Andrews
Unverified
Speaker 74