ALC-Highway Commission Review and Advisory Subcommittee
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Speaker 1
0:00
order i think the first thing on our agenda is director wiley looks like the director wiley show today 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 want to introduce yourself sir thank you mr chair jared wiley director of
Chair
Unverified
0:23
rdot and uh 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
Speaker 1
0:39
help us thank you all for being here now if i understand uh center payton is tied up in another meeting so uh you had a letter i think you were going to present or talk about on the uh before exhibit b the efficiency review yes yes sir okay sir i will you proceed whenever you're ready okay
Speaker 10
1:05
all right so that letter you you referenced i'm happy to report that that letter wrapped
Chair
Unverified
1:11
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 end and uh and all that information is right there at their fingertips so that's one of the great
Speaker 10
2:10
things that came out of this study so with that i'll i'll close that report
Speaker 13
2:23
and take any questions you guys have any questions on exhibit
Speaker 10
2:30
b if not we will go to exhibit c okay item 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
2:43
sold and this report was submitted there are four properties four surplus properties that we sold since the last meeting
we have any questions from anyone seeing none yes
Speaker 10
3:03
sir all right so in item d is our infrastructure investment and jobs act 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 job act it's been about four years since that came about that's as a
Chair
Unverified
3:27
reminder that's our federal transportation bill so that's our regular federal funding that we get at rdot to take care of the highways we have obligated 3.14 billion dollars of that funding and that's cumulative to date and so we'll submit that next quarterly report to you guys uh in april
Speaker 13
3:48
and see no questions maybe everybody did their homework ahead of time
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
3:53
I have a question. Do 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 so you're getting a little more experienced and kind of hitting the highlights for us. What are we missing in the parts that you skipped? Is there anything in there that we're missing that you did not go into?
That's one question. The second part is, what are
Chair
Unverified
4:30
missing, I don't think we're missing anything. This is not 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 Interstate 57 projects, widening projects, wrapping up soon ahead of schedule. That work zone has performed well. Proud of that. We just awarded a big contract to Weaver-Bailey contractors to do that Highway 5 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 in Lone Oak County and statewide. There's nothing in here that I've 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
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
5:12
and and 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 I want to come in to you and your team for everything y'all have done Thank you, Senator. Appreciate that
Speaker 20
5:29
Representative Representative Richmond if you Am I recognized? All right.
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
5:41
Thank you Kind of no, you won't recognize me much longer Anyway, I just you know out of district 52 got interstate 49 coming last week You guys put on a couple of meetings one up around Greenwood and the other one down at Waldron I just want to commend you on the professionalism and just how informative those meetings were
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.
Speaker 3
6:17
Thank you representative I'm proud of the team.
Chair
Unverified
6:19
They they they work hard and deliver well for our people I was also happy and thankful that we had such great turnout. They set records at those meetings We had over 400 people at the first one and several hundred the second one. So thank you for that We're working hard to be good neighbors over there as we develop interstate 49
Senator Dees is recognized for a question. Thank
Senator Tyler Dees
Unverified
6:46
you, Mr. Chair. Director Wiley, thank you for your time today. I just had
kind of a broad, general question. When we look at, and if you can just maybe give some directional answers, so when we look at regular maintenance expenses versus new highway, new road development, um, percentage of total spend, can you help give me, um, what that breakdown might be or those two
buckets? Um, I would imagine the majority of the budgeted dollars that RDOT spends, whether federal or state would be for, um, maybe new highway development, like the bigger ticket items, but I'm not sure if that's true. Would you say the majority of the budget goes to regular maintenance
Chair
Unverified
7:33
or for new projects new development so budgetary expenses the construction dollars that we have so the projects that we let to contract we budget about a million dollars a year for that work 75% of that goes to taking
care of the system that we have at least 75% 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
Senator Tyler Dees
Unverified
8:25
wanting a little more to build new and you've you've quoted this to me in the past but how many thousands
Chair
Unverified
8:33
of miles is under that jurisdiction for so the latest numbers is about sixteen thousand three hundred miles of centerline highways uh if you look at it on a lane by lane basis it's just under 40 000 miles and about 73 7400 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
Senator Tyler Dees
Unverified
8:53
as well as some other states can for sure 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 overwhelming majority of the budget goes to maintaining the current road system, is what I heard you say.
Chair
Unverified
9:13
That's correct, yes. Otherwise, yes, sir. Otherwise, you know, 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 efforts on that. And
Speaker 18
9:28
we do the best we can with the resources we have. Well, thank you for keeping our
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
9:45
travelers safe. Thank you. Senator Johnson, you're recognized. Hadn't quite come up. Oh, it's on. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for allowing me as a non-member to ask a question. Director Wiley, thank you. One, I want to compliment you on your comments in the paper this morning about our beautification.
uh this is not just a highway and a aesthetic thing this is a tourism and an economic issue and i appreciate the work you're doing and the coordination with keep arkansas beautiful commission we've we've got to work harder literally right before this day before yesterday i got a call from a constituent in yale not a constituent a former constituent who's retired moved to yelville 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 uh i i'm really concerned that you know maybe you know everybody kind of nods it's kind of like our fighting you know smoking and things yeah yeah we all agree smoking oh and littering that's that's bad too uh but i really to the point and and frankly i really won't i will pick on the city of little rock where i think it's one of the worst i've ever seen but uh are do you have the resources you need
now to uh to address this problem and uh and if not where would we how could we help is i guess what i was going to say and mr chairman if you'd allow me a really short follow-up on after his answer yeah thank you senator i
Speaker 9
11:22
appreciate the compliments and we're working hard i have a
Chair
Unverified
11:25
slide in here today to tell you a little more about our litter prevention and our litter control efforts but uh you know that that question's tough oh there we go uh you know i say you know all of
us we can all whether it's our personal budget our business or our workplace we can do more with more And RDOT 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 solely their sole purpose is picking up litter and sweeping the shoulders. It's a real problem out there. We do want to talk about some potential legislation at the next session in 2027 about litter.
But, you know, we can do more with more, Senator, for sure. Some of the things, I'll just jump ahead to it, some of the messaging 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 exploring those. But to latch on to that and do more, it costs
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
12:40
more money. Absolutely. And if I could, Mr. Chairman, quick follow-up. Yes,
go ahead. Back in 2019, of course, we had the serious flooding all over,
but especially on the Arkansas River. Ardott came up with a plan to alleviate the area just to the west of the Toad Suck Bridge. And there was a plan, and it was – I won't say it was shelved, But y'all, I think, kind of went back to the drawing board 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 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?
Chair
Unverified
13:29
Yes, sir, you're spot on. So we did go back to the drawing board after we had those public meetings, which Representative Richmond mentioned are 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, the traveling public, through that process. And so progress is being made.
We're actually in the acquisition phase now. We're buying right-of-way. And so as soon as that right-of-way 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 with that exact
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
14:08
date okay but at least at this point that your plan while we might have a traffic light or something that's would not at this point require the total closure of the bridge no
Chair
Unverified
14:21
we'll use a automatic signal that'll help flag traffic during those short
periods. Now, you know, with any project, there may be a short duration closure to hang some beans or things like that, but, but no, there's no long-term closure plan. Great. Thank you very much.
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
14:35
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Representative Piner, you're recognized.
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
14:44
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 in north central arkansas and also uh your commitment
and staff's commitment on highway 41262 as you know that's been a very deep and passionate subject for my constituents and and uh 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 uh since that's
Chair
Unverified
15:14
a priority corridor for sure yeah great great question representative uh when we started talking about the half cent sales tax and the the potential to make that permanent through amendment 101 that group in north central arkansas came to us about 412 and the the desire for more improvements
and there was three there was three segments of passing lanes that the group brought forward and said hey if we support this can you deliver these passing lanes for us and we we passed them in an order the commission did and said yes if if this gets passed we will build those projects and so we're underway with those now where 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 are five specific passing lane segments one of those is outside
belfont and that one is ongoing but we had those three priority locations and we are developing projects in those areas well again and i was
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
16:09
driving through belfont 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 highway 41262 a priority and i look forward to working with you on that thank you thank you mr chair central director i didn't mean for that
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
16:31
many questions come throwing at you whenever i just wanted to kind of get some conversations started
while ago uh i guess i guess my question is i don't know if this has 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 interstate 40 from Lone Oak to Little Rock being expanded to
Chair
Unverified
16:52
three lane 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 from 440 over to Kerr Road 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 to 31. We also are working on a project
starting in west Memphis coming a couple miles west to try to start that process but widening I-40 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 land of 40 if we toll it to try to help us get over that hurdle. But, yes, we are working towards a wider I-40,
but the last price tag I
Speaker 24
17:42
saw on that was multiple billions of dollars. When
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
17:46
you say time frame, are you talking 20 years, 25 years? To get that
Speaker 46
17:51
thing widened? Yes. And using conventional methods, to Senator D's question,
Chair
Unverified
17:55
It's going to take decades to get us there 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, a tolled lane 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. Well, if you go to the
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
18:18
tolled lane, at least wait until like 30 years or so, because that way I won't be driving by then, and we won't have to worry about that. Yes, sir. We make it easy
Speaker 46
18:26
on you with a sticker or something like they do in
Chair
Unverified
18:29
Oklahoma. Yeah, I paid those for my kids and they were in Texas. They'd send you a bill. Yes, sir, that's a great question. But in all seriousness, 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 to tackle.
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
18:42
Right. I assume, according to Senator Dees, probably in northwest Arkansas needs it worse than anywhere else. Certainly some needs
Representative Mike Holcomb
Unverified
18:58
there, too. Absolutely. Thank you. Representative Holcomb. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Director Wilder, just real quickly, I know we've had some workplace issues, injuries, those kind of things. And I know during the session we strengthened some of the laws and gave you some more tools to work with,
such as cameras in the work zone, checking on the cell phone, give you some more lead way on your enforcement for speeding through those. Are any of those, I know it's still an issue, distracted driving is still an issue, but are any of those having any effect or helping you in your work zone places? Yes, sir.
Chair
Unverified
19:36
So on the way over here, I encountered two RDOT vehicles with green lights flashing and saw the traffic on the interstate moving over and giving those crews space.
So it made me warm 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 work zone cameras, I think this body passed that maybe two sessions ago. We used them heavily on Interstate 30 in that work zone that we had there. They're in use on 57 now and on 49 at Fayetteville. And, you know, it's important for folks to realize and remember, it's not about us writing tickets at RDOT. 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 cell phone use and they do that by taking a picture of the vehicle for the windshield and you can see if a cell phone's in hand. There are 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 use of cell phones and the work zones and how unsafe that is. But we do have that tool in our toolbox, and we so appreciate 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 we don't want to write a ticket. We typically write a warning when we do write anything. But it's been impactful, and it helps people think twice when they come in
Representative Mike Holcomb
Unverified
21:17
those work zones. Well, thank you. And we want everyone to go home, every man on the job, 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 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. Chair, for
Speaker 13
21:43
taking the question. Yes, sir. Don't see any other questions. Exhibit E. i think
Speaker 10
21:47
yes sir yes sir to e it's our our report of our annual
Chair
Unverified
21:52
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 guarantee a guaranteed amount of 35 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 98.7 million dollars worth of projects and back to senator d's question 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 last fiscal year okay thank you i may have a
question from the previous representative thank you mr i just want to back
Representative Wade Andrews
Unverified
22:56
up um is there any updates on highway 82 in south arkansas expanding that keeping it around magnolia El Dorado area or even actually into Lafayette County working on the highway yes so it's also on
Chair
Unverified
23:11
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 four lanes we have a project west the one you mentioned I think
you're aware of it the uh the ridge near Lafayette County that's going to go over the
Representative Wade Andrews
Unverified
23:35
railroad tracks that's a big issue there because every time it rains a couple
Chair
Unverified
23:39
inches it floods yes sir that's a that's a that's a great project and we're all but ready the challenge there is just getting those final sign-offs 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 uh actually Director Tudor and I before she retired we went to Omaha and we met with their leadership about that project and a few others and some things did move a little bit, but, you know, challenges still exist.
Right, right. And then, you know, you remember, too, we studied magnolia to see if there's a way to bypass magnolia to help that 82 east-west 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. Okay. Appreciate it. Yes, sir.
Speaker 13
24:28
Seeing no other questions, we're down to exhibit f okay this
Speaker 10
24:33
is the report that we submit quarterly there are two quarters
Chair
Unverified
24:38
here it leads it lists all the projects that are 10 million dollars or more in cost okay there's also in this report there's a it's called a couple different sorts uh in the report but you also see a list of projects that changed since the last report and then there's a individual data sheet each 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
Speaker 74
25:09
work and also we're only reporting
on this this report here but the other reports are on your
Chair
Unverified
25:26
sir any questions on exhibit f seeing none you have anything else you
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 do projects we do how we
work but we we have a unique opportunity because we're in every county want to make sure our our staff our 4 000 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 every day seeing things and they're going to know the signs they're going to know who to call they'll be trained by april 1st And then we're going to train our office staff in Little Rock. 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 an update on the progress of ask for your help if we could uh director tutor started this program she got this started before she left street smart for those of you haven't heard about it it's a educational program that
we use some federal aid safety dollars to build this first phase focusing on middle schoolers sixth through eighth graders we developed a curriculum in 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 homegrown talent these kids auditioned and were cast in this in this effort but there are nine videos lesson plans uh interactive games it's all ready to go it's it's
ready it's packaged up we'd love to see schools using that we believe that prevention is is the best way to get behind get these kids before they get behind the wheel of the car and we found like Like my kids at home, they better listen to peers than people my age talk at them. So this is going to be a good way to reach them. But our team 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 in education this summer.
We'll be presenting to some of them on their in-service 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 start driving. So that's moving forward. I wanted you to know about that effort.
And then lastly, this litter initiative, you know, our state is so beautiful, natural state, tourism, and those things have become our number one source of revenue, and we want to make sure we're doing our part at RDOT. And the litter problem is prevalent. I mentioned earlier we spend $8 million a year on litter. That's way too much. That's funding we could be using to do something else if we didn't have to pick up all this stuff all the time. So 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 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 spring cleanup day at RDOT, so every one of our operations team, over 2,500 people will be out on the highways picking up litter.
About 10% of our office staff also volunteered 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 litter. Last year we picked up 6,500 bags on the first day we did this ever, and
I expect tomorrow to eclipse that. On that topic, coming down to 65,
Speaker 1
29:58
I saw the employees out today, and I commented to my wife in the short stretch that we drove
how many trash bags were already beside the – it just kind of blows your mind when you don't realize how there could be that much trash. Yes, sir. I don't know if they're supposed to be working today, but they're starting early if they are. They are. They were doing a good job. Thank you, sir. A lot of
Chair
Unverified
30:21
them are working all week doing that, but tomorrow is a heavy-focused day
Speaker 1
30:25
for sure. Do you have anything else, sir? No, sir. I 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 us 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