ALC-Highway Commission Review and Advisory Subcommittee

If I can get around. Would everyone take your seats please we'll try to get started. I can see. One called meeting of the highway commission review an advisory subcommittee to or order we've got to couples link the presentation so everybody would take their state. My co chair senator Johnson is home working trying to to make food for all of us so he will be here today but we're going to get started with our a report on the progress of our highway construction project we've got to handout I think everybody should have the quarterly report and then The one on a private progress of the highway construction you should have those cells. Yes the who's presenting miss Laurie are you doing that okay. All. I good afternoon I'm Laurie to the Director of the Arkansas department of transportation and I've brought to our top staff with me today I'll let them introduce themselves. Good afternoon Mister Committee on state frisbee the assistant chief engineer for operations for are not. My name is rex bison deputy director chief engineer for a thank you all for sharing your go ahead proceed. Okay in front of you you should have your report that we put together quarterly for this committee Senate committee and it's the third quarter report in at least all the projects ten million dollars or more that are under construction and the status of the progress on those projects so with that I'll just open it up for any questions about the report. Any questions from anyone. If not then we will proceed to the next and what you want to. Okay the next thing we would like to do is give you an update on the I. forty Hernando desoto bridge between West Memphis in Memphis over the Mississippi River we receive we presented to you at our last meeting and we have a a nice set date for the committee this morning or this afternoon so we're gonna current tag team this and the rex our chief engineer's gonna start us off I'll have a few comments in between and then Steve will will finish up so hopefully this is going to be a nice informative. AS in Tatian we did it yesterday at the commission meeting and that so we'll get started on handed off to rex thank you. Thanks director Is Your very where on may eleventh of twenty twenty one a fracture was discovered on the apple you bridge crossing the Mississippi River. So also known as the Hernando desoto bridge. The discovery of the fractures garners a lot of attention and questions in the past weeks and although many of the questions have been great. And they have been answered we feel like to store the the bridge inspection program has been lost in the shuffle so what I'd like to do this morning is provides more information in a manner that that I hope will help everyone understand or not bridges spectrum program of as a whole as well as provide an update on the bridge. Are not responsible for inspecting twelve thousand seven hundred and seventy six structures across the state. Seven thousand three hundred and eighty three of those I'm sorry seven thousand three hundred yes an eighty three those structures are state owned and then the remainder are City County bridges local local roads. Structure inspected a minimum of every two years. And fracture critical members are expected annually. There are seven hundred and sixty five bridges that have fracture critical members and I'll explain that a little more depth of later. The Federal Highway Administration has general oversight of our programming conducts annual compliance audits. But like to point out that the department has never been found non compliant by the FHWA. In fact many many ways or bridge inspection program exceeds minimums minimum requirements to maintain compliance. All of our structured with reduce low post and our state inspected annually they're only required to be expected finally. Structures in poor conditions are inspected annually which only requires a biannual inspection. Our inspectors use nondestructive testing such as ultrasonic testing for on on many of our for critical members like pencil pen and hangars. Critical finding the low posting issues are reviewed by engineer engineering staff monthly. In twenty seventeen we increased our MBI's Q. eight Q. C. program by adding a and inspection teams are statewide inspection program before that we only had one. Then in twenty nineteen we added in other statewide inspection team in an effort to increase our quality assurance program. Then in twenty twenty we've introduced drones in our program to just help enhance the. Just help enhance it. So we move on to the next elected just point out a couple the. Manuals on your screen you see our our the national bridge inspection reference manual produced by US DOT and we were going to bring a copy that today but it's over two thousand pages long. Is a little big. So wait without a probably best not to so that is on the the left of your screen. They are not registration manual is more specific Arkansas in Arkansas DOT AT these miners are heavily used by our bridges factors as they go about performing their duties. There are twenty four inspection teams located around the state. We're based in our district headquarters these inspection teams consist of district region specter and an assistant district written specter each team report to the district construction engineer in that district who is a professional engineer. There are three statewide inspection teams or tasks to inspect our larger structures around the state. These inspection teams consist of a state wide bridge inspector and assistant bridge inspector. These teams report to the staff a bridge maintenance engineer who is also a professional engineer. So what does it take to be a bridge inspector glad you asked. A minimum of five years experience restructures. With a minimum of two and a half years within of inspection experience. Certification from the national highway use to core safety inspection of in service Regis. And inspectors are also required to have periodic refresher training. One last thing I'd like to share with you regarding this overall program is some quotes from our recent compliance letters from the Federal Highway Administration. Not a specifically I'll let you read those that specifically want to highlight the twenty eighteen nineteen. The Arkansas department of transportation. As functioning and effective bridge inspection program. Now to move a little past the overall program in and get a little more specific to the Hernando desoto bridge about forty Mississippi River bridge. Is a very complicated bridge to inspect. And hopefully I can help you understand a little bit there are at least help clarify some things This Bridget's five units. Eighteen prestressed concrete girder units which are twelve hundred feet long. It has seven plate girder for beans which are nine hundred and eighty feet long and do include practicable members. Five steel box girder with floor beams this is eighteen hundred and sixty feet long. To span tied arch truss which is eighteen hundred and fifty feet long. Which a fresh critical members and this is the the picture that you see on the screen here is. What most people think of when you say the Mississippi River bridge this is only a is a very small portion of that bridge. there's also twenty six still motor main spans which are thirty five hundred and ninety five feet long. This totals nine thousand four hundred and thirty five feet in length and is roughly equivalent to thirty one and a half football fields. In accordance with the national bridge inspection standards unit is fully inspected every two years. R. naught has added a purchaser critical member inspection in between these the act required inspections. I would like to clarify one thing on terminology before you move too far on The terminology we use can be internally can be a little confusing at times of a fracture critical bridge is a bridge that has one or more components. There are consider fracture critical so fracture critical component is simply means that it would if certain pieces of the bridge fail it could result in collapse of the bridge. I think there has been some that that is why we inspected annually and not by annually as is required. So I think there's been. In our conversation there have been people who have heard fractured critical as in they are fractured and critical. Did you does not mean that we inspect them annually to be sure they're in good shape if we find a fractured member we immediately address it we do not allow this to go on to just want to clarify that. What is also drawn a lot of confusion is the timing of the inspection and who performs an. You see on the the photos on your screen these are just some some indications as follows the warrant the photo number one is of some inspectors checking the top trus we're checking some cable stay units or cable units. And then the photo to his in the what we call a snooper that's a kind of a generic term for under under bridge unit and they are there's a truck on top of that it's all tied to that they move around but in general. The entire structures inspected by our not inspection team finally. This includes critical members using the snooper we use climbing if you say these gentlemen on the on the left climbing we've been ocular is on the cables we now have drones that we've added to this. Only all fears between the biennial inspection we perform fracture critical inspection to which we've hired consultant inspectors with rope certification to inspect the cable system. Along with drone inspections this also includes climbing and the use of the sniper to inspect pressure fracture critical members. As you know the fracture was discovered on one of the taxpayer and arches by consulting inspection team Michael Baker international is there performing an inspection on the cables. The bridge was immediately closed to traffic and I fifty five bridge which would be forced to carry the load of both interstates was re inspected by our not registration team. Within hours we began forming a team of experts with Federal Highway Administration. With Tennessee department transportation with Arkansas department transportation HNTB and Michael Baker international and we began this team began assessing the damage to the structure. We'll quickly schedule press conference to let the public know what occurred and that we were performing investigations. During the assessment. Drone footage of the twenty nineteen inspection revealed damage that had not been previously recognized. We began an internal investigation which resulted in immediate termination of the inspector responsible for the inspecting this portion of the structure for at least the past two years. A social media post later surfers. Ninety twenty sixteen origins. Of the same damage as we do not have the technology to confirm that the validity of this picture we have turned this photo over to the office of inspector general. And we are proceeding with our internal investigations assuming this photo Jeremy. As part of the investigation into our bridge inspection program we have requested the assistance of the US department of transportation inspector general to investigate. The Federal Highway Administration is performing a comprehensive special process in compliance audit. Tennessee department transportation has reinspected out fifty five bridge to sure is it safe. And are not has listed consulted to review our program as well. So I'd like to move on to the repairs if I may. In two thousand seven a structure on the I. thirty five in Minnesota collapsed during rush hour. In part due to additional unaccounted for weight of the route for repair equipment. Do not repeat the mistakes of the past the design team has gone to great effort to account for as many variables as possible. Globally the bridge. We still figure to be in danger of collapsing so the design team developed. An intermediate solution in order to move on to the permanent solution. The bridge had to be stabilized before we could continue further despite one repair provided some additional conferences bridge could handle the weight of the work platforms equipment the personnel and the materials to perform the work. So as I mentioned earlier upon the discover the fracture. A design team was formed to come up with an immediate and permanent repair the team consisted of rejects performed better how would menstruation it's construction. R. dot T. dot Michael Baker international and H. antibody. One key with construction were brought on board there constructed construction experience would brought into and into the process immediately and we address some safety and constructed building concerns and that was incorporated into the final design so that we could provide the safest and the fastest repair possible. The fabrication of phase two has begun in some parts are being installed already as a scheduled rest primarily on fabrication we have or not ready to provide a an exact timeline of repairs and re opening. has not been it's not been released petit dot. So but before I start before I finish I'd like to show you a short video the Tennessee department station put together that goes over how the repair will be handled. Thank you of and just so you know Senator Rinker picked out the music. Your city for my working mask bandage point what you so many different entities working together for a common calls including two farmers who are normally competitors and just sitting back and watching the push agendas aside and working for the greater good a quote from Harry Truman I believe is applicable here director tutor brought this to our attention recently is on your screen it's amazing what can be accomplished when you don't care who gets the credit. Thank you Mr chairman thank you members. Now N. Steve's gonna take nope I'm going to take it from here I got the script. So you know it because of this with these challenges put in front of us because of the I. forty bridge it came at a time when we were creating our budget for this up coming fiscal year which is that starts on July first so the first thing we did is we went to our heavy bridge maintenance section and we said what do you need what can we do to improve our program what kind of equipment what you know so we did some some really some in depth looking into it and so we increased our budget from last year it was three point five million to six point four million and a big portion of that increase is going to be hiring consultants and those consultants are going to come in and do two things one they're gonna look at our entire program and they're going to give us suggestions what are some things we can do what or sending that technologies New equipment we're going to get an outside person or an outside firm to come in and get us up to speed with the newest industry standards and those types of things and then also we're going to hire a consultant to help us with quality control and quality assurance into we are internally sure that our program is in you know we have the redundancies everything in place so that we have a very very strong regions fiction program. So we want to really learn from this and we will learn from this and get better In our current statewide transportation improvement program that we're under right now our plan for the future the next four years the projects that we have and we recently approved got that approved by the Federal Highway Administration went through a huge public involvement process that the private the US statewide transportation improvement program we all call this debt is under way in in that step over the next four years we have a total is two hundred and seventy two bridges that are scheduled for replacement for five hundred and two million and then we have about two hundred bridges that will be rehabilitated annually through the current step M. it's about thirty eight million dollars a year so total of eight hundred bridges to have some rehabilitation at a total cost of a hundred fifty two million. And then thanks to the passage of issue one the extension of the House and sales tax we're going to be able to to add start the renew Arkansas highways program July first two twenty twenty three and in this program or we went out to the public and we said this is how will spend all of our funding if issue one passes that will include one point one billion dollars over the next ten years beginning July first twenty twenty three ed to repair or replace all of our load posted or structurally deficient bridges so issue one allowed us to really beef up our bridge replacement rehabilitation program to take care of all of those bridges over the next ten years well in addition to that we have we're going to set aside over the next twenty years three point six billion dollars for a second connecting Arkansas program connecting Arkansas highways program and that program will build some projects on new location like I forty nine from alma down to a I think it's a highway to seventy and some other big projects that we're going to be able to accomplish that will build new bridges like a new bridge over the Arkansas River and then also some of the capacity projects that widen roadways that need additional capacity we will for replacing bridges within those sections to have wider bridges in New or bridges so in addition to just focusing on bridges will have this big capital and congestion relief program that will also take care of many of our bridges. So with that I'm going to turn it over to Steve for his B. and he's going to give you an update on removing some of the pain points that we're going through right now since we close the I. forty bridge. Thank you director so as we are focusing on getting I. forty bridge repaired and re opened we've also been focusing our efforts on maintaining traffic flow across that fifty five bridge prior to the bridge closure both I forty nine fifty five carry a combined eighty five to ninety thousand vehicles per day in each bridge as part of a vital link of not only between Arkansas and Tennessee but for freight movements from coast to coast. Immediately after the bridge closure are not in our partners at TI dot Federal Highway Administration the cities of West Memphis and Memphis police emergency services in each state we set up a day conference call. To share updates collaborates dreaded Jeez and maintain safe and efficient flow of traffic as expected following the closure traffic back ups of five plus miles in each direction of I. fifty five occurred on most days and continued throughout the peak daytime hours with Wednesdays through Fridays see in the worst congestion trips across the river were experiencing an average delay of at least one hour and with any crashes or stalled vehicles back up calls multi hour delays at times. This will cause drivers to attempt to divert through town causing further problems for the local highways and streets in West Memphis. Our doctor district forces quickly worked to add a motorist assistance patrol vehicle in West Memphis to assist rented motorist and clear any stalled vehicles from the traveled way also or highway police patrol units have worked tirelessly protecting the traffic queues with blue lights warning motorist of the pending stopped traffic ahead and we've opened rest areas and way stations for additional truck parking for commercial mean motor vehicles as well. So improve the traffic flow our engineering staff has been working hard brainstorming and analyzing options for improving the bottom Nicks for reducing traffic merging conflicts and sharing and listening to our partners on our daily calls working together to find the best solutions so early last Thursday are not implemented some traffic control changes as shown on the map here. We what we did is we reduce the I. fifty five southbound from two lanes down to one lane prior to the west split where I fifty five joins out forty so as you approach this location I. forty eastbound already reduces to one lane before joining with I. fifty five in a joint into three lanes we elected to close the middle lane of the three lane section through West Memphis separating the I. forty one lane of traffic from the I. fifty five one lane of traffic. To minimize merging conflicts with the ramps and allow a more even flow specifically for the I. forty traffic as compared to the I. fifty five we ended that middle lane closure near Ingram Boulevard allowing the two lanes to continue through March together onto the river bridge. So in addition to our changes T. dot forces have been working for several weeks now planning and moving utilities widening drainage structures to be able to widen the one lane of I. fifty five ramp at the crop interchange which is just across the river this area was the main chokepoint for eastbound interstate traffic and it was the beginning of the traffic back ups that have occurred day since the closure T. dot pave the majority of this much needed additional lane at the crop interchangeable **** Thursday. So as much as that work was necessary it did increase during that day last Thursday it increase the already high congestion and traffic back ups last Thursday extended several miles in Arkansas about fifty five pass Marion and on I. forty all the way back to the Crittenden County line because in some of the worst traffic delays yet there was of course immediate concern that these traffic pattern changes that are not implemented the same day were to blame and Thursday was a really rough day for travelers for those that were involved there and it was a rough day for all of us involved. However we still felt confident that we made the right decision that are trafficked changes were based on solid engineering judgment and that would work we ask for patience to give our changes time to take effect without the additional construction work impact that we experienced last Thursday two DOT agreed to not work at the current interchange on Friday following allowing our traffic changes to be tested and we were relieved to see traffic flow improve last Thursday we saw at least twenty percent improvement the first day after T. dot didn't work of even better T. dot work over the weekend and we're able to complete the two lane section adding that second lane at the krump interchange and we were very thankful for their efforts to gain this important additional travel lane and we feel this was the key to opening up the flow for eastbound traffic. I'm pleased to say that the combined efforts of our dot G. dot feral Highway Administration we are seeing much improved traffic flow this week this travel time chart shows the traffic delay it's calculated from the T. dot smart way system which has traffic sensors throughout Memphis and west Memphis to collect detailed traffic data the normal travel time there if you could see at the bottom is the Green Line and it shows about a seven minute trip for seven miles from the west split across the krump interchange to Memphis that's the normal daily commute time. On Friday June fourth. The travel time was close to one hour so that was a week almost two weeks back. And last Friday after changes were made they picked up forty three minutes showing that twenty percent proven on a very busy day but even better yet after the crown Brandt went to two lanes over the weekend this Monday and Tuesdays travel time as you can see there in yellow is a comparison of this past Monday to the previous Monday and the purple is this past Tuesday to the previous Tuesday the travel time drop to ten minutes we saw almost free flow traffic all day a huge improvement over what we've seen since the closure on may eleventh we are cautiously optimistic understanding the busiest travel days are Wednesdays and Thursdays but we feel these changes that have been made will continue to make an impact for better flow of traffic during the duration of the I. forty closure period traffic again flow very well yesterday on Wednesday and even today Thursday. yesterday morning we do have some emergency pothole work that had to be done due to some damage that occurred overnight and that did cause a bit of a back up this morning we had just minor traffic back ups in the typical morning rush hour but previous to that since may eleventh it would be pretty much gridlock all day long specially on Wednesdays Thursdays and Fridays and to see that traffic free flowing at two PM it's just it's amazing it's better than we had expected. So I am proud of to read quote or deputy director and chief engineer rex vines who in response to this effort of earlier in the week he quoted proverbs fifteen twenty two this is without counsel plans fail but with many advisers they succeed this is a perfect example of that quote because I cannot stress enough the collaborative team work that's taken place here from our friends that assisted in are planning branch at or dot or engineers and maintenance crews in district one there and once it's in Memphis and west Memphis T. dot the Federal Highway Administration our local partners all work together and played a role to make these changes a reality. This directly impacted immediately made an economic safety and quality of life impact on businesses residents freight haulers emergency services and all travelers throughout this area during the emergency clause without forty bridge we do plan to continue to monitor traffic conditions are ready to make necessary changes as needed to keep this momentum going in the right direction and we do appreciate the patience of the traveling public during this crisis thank you. So. So with that artists that I say in the we are realizing quotes in this presentation but I was at a ground breaking in may flowers and I was talking to one of our congressmen and he we were talking about the bridge and he said this to me never let a good crisis go to waste that really resonated with me because is bad is this is B. N. as the events unfold we are learning so much but not only are we learning so much so were the other DOT's across the nation are there's just so much going on right now and at the end of the day when this is all in the rear view mirror there's going to be same huge lessons learned there's going to may I know is going to make are not better and stronger than we've ever been before but I'm I'm convinced it's going to make the whole nation stronger as far as our bridge inspections go because the challenge the whole nation is facing is an aging infrastructure and this fracture in the I. forty bridge is just one thing that is just put a spotlight on that this is a bridge that was opened to traffic in nineteen seventy two and it you know all of our infrastructure these huge bridges all across the nation are getting older and they're going to have more problems so to strengthen that route inspection program to find a weakness before a major catastrophe occurred to find a weakness and to be able to correct that is really to me a fortunate thing more than. I mean it is unfortunate that what we're going through but I'll just say that I'm glad we found this weakness before anything really bad happened so with that I'm just going to stop in thank you for your patience I know this was a long presentation but and we really wanted to tell the story so I stop and take any questions that you might have. K. the center field yes thank you and thank you for the presentation just a quick question are there any other bridges made of the same material in the state of Arkansas. As far as the steel material of course of many of our bridges have of similar structural steel members in them and so yes ma'am there are are quite a few bridges with the similar materials. With so reassuring you wanna tell me where they are which. As Mr finds your dues we have twelve thousand bridges across the state now we have so it's not necessarily materials I would say but is the the type as we use that term fracture critical we have one of the fracture critical bridges in the state press one of the twelve thousand a good fortune thing is there are seven hundred and sixty five fracture critical bridges across the state and those are the ones that have the special we do special inspections on those because of that fracture critical it would be going from. hello nature Littlewood it. Yes ma'am the the Helena bridges also for critical. So much for that so serwis. Thank you very very much appreciated. The Senator Dismang. The second chairman this request on the consultants that we're looking to hire in kind of the plan that's surrounding that do we have any idea on cost. We. Sorry. Is it all. We have we have budgeted two million dollars two million dollars for that we've we've budgeted two million dollars that we don't know yet we were out for we can request for proposals so we have to go through the process but that's how much we have budgeted okay in on that so we're we're those funds come from they came as far as your existing budget you know we're really tight legislatures allocating money because we got to meet the match you know and that's kind of the argument I just wanna make sure all right so we're we're with this two million dollars come from it comes from our state funds that we get you know our system of the the fifty million that we sent over you're going to utilize some of that to pay for consultants yes Sir on for for this this problem is there okay and then is it possible so there's some money set aside how much do we have set aside the special projects fund right now in special projects I don't think we have any zero what will happen to those dollars them because the rescind dollars set aside for economic development special projects. We discussed it in in this committee and I pull L. C. there were there was money specifically set aside for economic development. Okay I'm not sure for talking about the half cent sales tax funding but I would like to get my I'll to get you this this was so the legislature I can remember how many years ago now probably two years ago since well in excess of what we thought was going to go over because of the amount surplus that was trying to exactly and then there was some of those funds that were set aside that's right we set aside I think it was fifteen million dollars to do economic development in those funds the way we are handling the way they keep the commission determined to use those funds if the economic development a council and the governor if if someone came in like Amazon or Amazon was one or two of them right there's been there's been some big industries that have come in and needed some transportation improvements and if they've if they pass the test with all the people and the governor and the economic development council then the commission has allotted them certain amount of money we have a balance in that account we haven't used all of it I apologize I wasn't sure we have utilized some of it I was not aware of that we had we still have a balancing those funds do you mind getting the balance of that have been in because what I would say when we were when we now I'm at that been here long enough to know that when we started sending the money over to R. dot M. Gen revenue surplus I'm jumping into dollars you know the the primary focus was for repairs and maintenance. And then you know the transition because we sent so much over that was more than you needed I guess and so then we did this Economic Development Fund and since we're not utilizing it for repairs maintenance as well as originally you know considered by this this legislature you know we have new folks in here but the folks that were here that was the drumbeat was repairs maintenance that I would like for us to look at utilizing some of those funds for these consultants if we're going to do that and just one last question on the consultants would be you know what they're only going to be as valuable as they are independent. as they're working through the process to give you all information review information and then provide recommendations and so I'd just like to hear a little bit about what we're going to do to ensure that there is independence like for instance if there were consultants to be hired I would prefer them to be hired by the commissioners. Not hard on employees that way there's independence between the employees and the the the consultants to be putting forward proposals and reviewing the information but again I would just like to you know to kind of hear your considerations as we work through your hiring what we're going to do to make sure there's a stop whether there's a good divide between what we want the outcome to be what it may should be based on the information that we're providing to the council thank. Okay all respond to that the commission. The commission approves any hiring of any consultant's anytime we do anything like that they give us permission to go out for request for proposals and then they also give us permission to we we we evaluate the proposals we come back to them everything is done by a commission approval every dollar that is spent is done by commission approval our god is the commission is our oversight and we they know everything that we do will hot we will give them a recommendation on which consultant to hire and they can they can either accept a recommendation or decided decide to hire someone else and then the final reports will be given to them to review I mean there is not I don't want you to I don't know. There might be some kind of misunderstanding of the role of the commission has department but that they will be completely involved in this and specially in this particular instance because of the nature of. Did that does that answer your question. Did you need to an information request on some of those numbers and good morning sent to the admin. One. Last so if we get a report on the economic development fund to know what's spent how much is there and if there could be consideration to use some of these funds for the consultants that are going to have to be hired so that we can still fund some repairs and maintenance that needs that are out there I think that would be helpful and again I I may visit with some of the commissioners two just because I wanna make sure again that we if we're gonna hire consultant and they're gonna tell you what you want to hear for not careful maybe not what you need here so thank you. Your. Just like to add to that just a little bit under this severity of this. Of this whole situation. I do not want them and use the commission want them to tell us what we want to hear we want to hear the truth and I assure you that is our that is what we're thinking when we're having a consultant we're going to get the trees from Federal Highway Administration they're taking an in depth look from the national level at our program we're going to get a good. Look not telling us what we want to hear but they're gonna tell us what we need to hear from not only federal highway but from the office of inspector general and then just to be on the safe side so that the industry part of everything that the consulting industry people out there that actually no on the cutting edge technology we want to get what they have to say about our program and I don't want to hear what I wanna hear what I'd like to hear so you're perfect but I'm not going to hear that they're going to tell us how we can improve why would we spend two million dollars to be told not the truth I want to hear the truth and services commission saw just leave it at that. And if you don't mind the. Economic development development figures and send that to staffing and maintenance and if members okay okay thank you. Representative law thank you Mr chair and I'm right here so I appreciate that you want to hear what you need to hear but we I've already hired a consultant that came in president of us we've already spent taxpayer dollars actually on a consultant so what about some of those recommendations how will they be implemented and what do you look for this consultant to tell you different than what was already hired to tell you. The efficiency review that that consulting came in and looked at our processes they looked at everything that we did they had no that we could find any kind of recommendations about our actual bridge inspection program processes there was a little bit in there about training inspectors and that's in in the final report of course we're going to implement all those recommendations we've already gone through that and that'll be happening over the next. I you know this year so we're going to be recording to this committee about our implementation of you know efforts but You know that that money that was spent looked at our processes but it to had no recommendations on the bridge inspection process itself you know how we inspect bridges how you know how that's structured so we don't have anything there follow up Mr so the two million dollars is going to be just about bridges that's all we're gonna learn about with the two million dollars it's going to be directed and it's going to be focused only on our inspection program. Thank you Mr thank you. The representative right. Thank you at your sag agree with everything that Senator Dismang had to say and I want to follow up on representative Baltz line of questioning I know that the guide House report didn't specifically provide recommendations for bridge repair or things like that but they did make a lot of recommendations for the Department overall. If we're gonna be hiring consultants to give us more more consultants to give us. Opposed to things that the department can do to improve processes particularly related to bridges it would help to have some confidence that the current recommendations that you receive from consultants are going to be implemented did I understand you correctly that you just said that all of the guy House recommendations you intend to implement all the guy House recommendations. The report the final report in the end Senator Dismang You know we had some legislation this time we you know we agree to. We went through that whole process at I guess that. The point of this committee right that will be coming before you and showing you how we're implementing these recommendations. And. The legislation is in place for us to be that. Okay I I'm just asking I mean I we can't implement a lot of what god House recommended I I'm just wanting some assurances from from you that. The recommendations that you've already received from a consultant are being implemented so that folks like me have some faith that later recommendations are going to be implemented that they're not just going to exist on paper in a report and then never be implemented. Well I think your insurances legislation was passed in this last. Legislative session coming required by law to. In prevent these recommendations so. Okay thank you. Represented by any. I was gonna follow up phone representative vault and representative raise questions along with the question on that got House recommendations how many of those recommendations have been implemented to date. Wasn't the legislation doesn't take effect until I'm not asking about the legislation I'm asking how many of those recommendations that were provided are not have been implemented to date I can't answer that. Could you provide that information to assist the next meeting I certainly can thank you. We've been brought up again. Thank you Mr chair I'm sorry I should ask this a second ago I was gonna ask the same thing that representative Beatty just ask as they're implemented can you update us and then as you get the new guidance from or the new recommendations from the new consultant can also bring us those to us so that we can know what those recommendations are and as are implemented so we can be fully aware so I'm not caught off guard if somebody asked me something absolutely thank you ma'am. Senator Hammer. Thank you of a couple things look let me make a clarifies specially since of this occurred in my Senate district one of I think or not is to be commended for standing up taking responsibility in addressing this in a of a very quick manner they realize the of enormity of of what they were dealing with of they have worked fantastic with of local government of the you saw today of we're. Maybe five to ten minutes own owner of backups now of and so I applaud. The highway department for taking responsibility dealing with it and then moving to come up with best practices I think that's normal in business and I'm glad to see that that is being undertaken by the highway department to clarify of maybe the center just Dismang Eads question of. Some you might not remember but of when we had a crisis of regarding our federal match money I think that your Mississippi was unable to generate enough revenue to meet their match we came up with a plan of of fifty million dollars that would get us two hundred million dollars for our match in that that plan we tweak some things puts money over there and then set up of twenty five percent of the surplus. Of the but the deal was fifty million dollars of as you know in this legislative session we repeal that twenty five percent of the surplus and held it to fifty million instead of two hundred fifty million is what the surplus would be in. Of the the the money that I think Senator Dismang is talking about the about special projects that money is what was used for closing any project and that money came out of the governor's quick action for. And it was transferred over is I remember up to the highway department to pay for infrastructure for major projects of I think of senator did we cut the quick action fund by twenty million are we down the thirty million now. Action. The week we we would not transfer quick action money over for free no projects that that was surplus money that was surplus money that is gone but we approved of them to use money for project based on ADC I mean a recommendation from ADC of that of the cost benefit that if a major project came like Amazon that we would use this pool money instead of going through quick action correct we did not serve the governor and are not approve that amongst each other well I I yes I understand that but but we had budgeted the the money in the end that we had we had budgeted the money for them to use they and then they decided that instead of doing it the that way that they were going to use the money of the highway department would hold the money for special projects that was up for a ETC so I guess my point is is that this in our dots decision this is a E. D. C. and the governor's office decision whether to use this money on projects that outstripped the opportunity these is you know of these projects owned roads and sewers of cost far more than any local entity has and in economic development you cannot get in the game if you don't have incentives and this is just part of an incentive package so I just wanted to try to make make make that clear and I've probably made it less clear and attempting to clarify thank you. Written right. Or on this money this two million dollars for the consultants just wonder was part of this for the job that actually is taking place on the breeze it's this you know being fixed now did we get them involved in the ****. All. No no no no okay thank you. Do we have any other questions. May. The eighty. We got pushed yeah I'm on. I'm on. Okay. Just go ahead. This was waiting to be recognized. A thank you Mr chair in you may have addresses that traveling over I. fifty five I've had to do that a couple times since this This accident this failure has occurred. I'm concerned about West Memphis and the traffic through there can you just describe for me and some of the things that you all have done in order to try to alleviate. That traffic through West Memphis and the incredible amount of congestion that. You know obviously as a result of this. Sure I'll get Steve to go over that again. Yes of the example I used was last Thursday and Wednesday which were some of the worst days that we've dealt with begin week we do a daily call with Memphis West Memphis are not T. dot the locals and and talk through and again it's been great collaboration but it was bad last week so as the issue has been as the Interstate backs up because the I. forty closed now fifty five being the only route of we were seeing gridlock in when a gridlock occurs in traffic backs up inherently those vehicles that we caught diversion they're going to try to find a way around they're gonna get also fifty five go through Marion they were vehicles that of trucks that were getting stuck in neighborhoods no we've of coordinated with the mayor and they were having to do some traffic control trucks coming in on forty would would divert in trying to get off on seventy come through town traffic signals were were being overloaded Emergency Services couldn't get through it was bad but again all that was because the interstate traffic was getting off trying to find the fastest way around and so the changes we made here based on this map by again the joint effort from these changes and what T. dot did at the crop interchange. Allowing that one lane imagine we had at of eighty five ninety thousand vehicles a day on two different interstate routes all not only down to one interstate but then down to one lane I know it was or it could mean that you are searching people into one lane right so that was why we're so happy to see that T. dot was willing to go in and out of Arkansas side to that we were merging into one lane this was a couple weeks ago. Well we were so I forty is always been merging to one lane so do you mean coming into West Memphis or through town. I believe it took me like two hours to drive fifteen miles from West Memphis over the bridge into. From both companies mental of art so that it was was all through that so it merged into one and then back into to you when you're going over the bridge and. It was just a nightmare so is there any chance to be able to I mean have you open that up I guess my question you have opened up a second question is I've rubric are listens to the nine one one call. that occurred the day that this happened. And in listening to that nine one one call there was just and there was. There was not clear information given by Arkansas department of transportation to the nine one one operator. Have you have you do you have the ability to train your employees to say exactly as script as to what needs to happen and why it needs to happen so that it's being clearly communicated. Because I've listened to that call and the nine one one operator still could not understand what was going on with that situation and it was because whoever was on the phone you know was having a side conversation with two or three people and I understand that that was an emergency situation however there's got to be a very clear concise conversation in a situation like that and it just goes to I think the recommendations and everything that people are asking here is management and managing the situations and making sure that you have people that are communicating clearly with. Those other folks and so I was concerned because. You know listen to the conversation it was so frustrating because I said just say this and you would be clear as to why we need to shut the bridge down so that's a little thing but I think it's it's emblematic of the whole perhaps management of how this occurred but I think that's something that you need to think about to be honest with you and and to clarify what I think other people are saying like a list this is a recommendation this is the responses to the recommendations of the response here's the time line this is when we did this you don't have to wait on legislation if it's a good idea it's a good idea I would think that you know department of transportation said this is a really good recommendation we ought to wait for legislation we need to go ahead and implement this we need to act on this is what we've done this is how we've done it we're on the we are on this we're responding we read this we have a process this this is what we're doing with that this is a time line of how we're doing it you know. I mean I think that would be a reasonable approach to the job that you have so. I think that's kind of the frustration you're hearing but thank you. We have any other questions or anybody. Yes and again just to clarify some of the experience that you're describing was prior to our changes are what are not anti dot is done to make improvements and since then again I don't want to jinx us we have been very pleasing but since last Friday and and what these charts show you we have a great of data that we have that shows you can see it you can experience it but since our changes it is it's actually exceeded my expectations it is free flow and we've been getting of that a lots of recommendations encouragement from the local saying wow I'm not sure what you did but it's great to open keep that going thank you I'll just respond of course it's going to be delays I mean I think everybody expects that right I mean five minutes is probably I mean at certain times of the day you're going to be expecting to probably sit there for a lot longer and I don't I'm not trying to push anybody down to five I'm concerned about the businesses along those routes you know and I'm glad to hear you're working with Luke Meyer my question was really the infrastructure of West Memphis and those streets and those businesses in the drop I mean I'm sure they are frustrated too because everybody is trying to get a jump off the interstate and some concern about those businesses and the traffic in and out of their you know their their driveways in their businesses that that's really the concern I have I mean everybody expects delays and I'm glad to see that you're taking those those precautions but you know it becomes problematic for your neighborhoods and for your for all of that And traffic accidents occur and things like that so that's that was just really my big big concern and then the stress that we're putting on I. fifty five bridge thank you. Any other questions comment. Anyway I want to thank you all for the presentation thank all of the art off both for being here also want to mention we have the Commissioner of Marie holder and Mr Keith Gibson with this we're glad to have you today. You all have anything else to add. You're done okay Richard. Our next item. Is a detective Director Brian day with the port of Little Rock data presentation force and you all should have a handout. Thank you so much for allowing Mr day to come before the committee today we have been dealing with highways but we have not looked at the impact that Is miscue had on waterway traffic and we also have not. Fully realize the impact of fifty years of the port and I wanted to invite him here to visit with you about what is going on in this state fifty years later so thank you Mr chair for allowing us to have this portion of the agenda. Thank you. You can die thank you Mr chair members of the committee and thank you senator Chesterfield for having me come today I'm I'm grateful that's a tough act to follow with our dot so hopefully my comments will will inspire you to think about the water ways and as we move forward I would also be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that miss Cassandra Caldwell was in the office miss Caldwell is the director of the Arkansas waterways Commission which is your state agency that oversees of America's or Arkansas's inland waterways. Senator Chesterfield said we have recently celebrated the Arkansas rivers fiftieth anniversary in early June nineteen seventy one president Richard Nixon Nixon I dedicated the river in the portage toll said Catoosa and fifty years later the Arkansas River is a major economic impact asset for your state and your communities what I wanted to do today was to share a little bit about the inland waterway system share a little bit about the Arkansas River and what it is today and the challenges it faces because it too is a piece of infrastructure that needs to be invested in and monitor and then while I'm here just talk a little bit about the port of Little Rock because that's what that's what I do every day so if you'll bear with me I'm gonna referred a few notes on my phone I you do have in front of you a packet of information about the port of Little Rock as well as the impact of the Arkansas waterways and some specific details about the Arkansas River so America's inland waterway system consist of about twenty five thousand miles Arkansas has the third highest number of navigable waterways in the country it's something people find that hard to believe that you have the Mississippi the Arkansas the red white and the washer call each of those rivers has different elements to it but the Mississippi and the Arkansas are major contributors to the economy most of America's in one system in the water way system relies on the Mississippi River it's as its backbone and the Arkansas River flows into the Mississippi of course we know from studying history that America's and then water ways for important and towns located on the water weighs as little rock did several hundred years ago they use the water way to transport people and goods and services and if you're lucky enough to have a water way in your community sorry lost by the then you then usually built there I'm in the mid eighteen hundreds the railroads came to town and people begin to think a little bit less about. Waterways and they weren't so important but in the early twentieth century we recognize that waterways were critical to commerce transportation tourism flood control and other elements that make a state or community great of course the Arkansas River was born out of the flood of nineteen twenty seven if you study history you know that that was a major flood it had Congress begin to think about what we're going to do to control and manage our rivers for strategic purposes as well as for flood irrigation hydropower tourism environmental recreation and of course commerce in terms of commerce I just have to say that waterborne transportation is the cleanest the the greenest the cheapest in the safest way to move goods and commodities I want to give you a couple examples you look at a semi truck in your earlier you were talking about all that traffic on the route interstate going from West Memphis Memphis but a single semi truck can hold about twenty six tons. about nine hundred bushels and about seventy eight hundred gallons of gas you could put all of that if you take a rail car a single real Clark and hold about a hundred twelve tons about four hundred bushels of grain and about thirty four thousand gallons of gas but let's talk about a barge a barge can hold about fifteen hundred tons fifty two thousand bushels of grain or four hundred fifty three thousand gallons of fuel taking it one step further a truck gets about a hundred fifty five ton miles per gallon a real car gets about four hundred thirteen time miles per gallon but a barge gets five hundred seventy five ton miles per gallon taking those of facts into account taking those facts into account we see the barge traffic is the best way to go Now not everything can be moved on barges but we look at grain fertilizer or oil scrap rock aggregate those types of role resources or what we thrive on with the Arkansas River in Arkansas's inland rivers if the America's waterways this is this is what I want you to knowledge if America's inland waterway system did not exist it would add twenty six million trucks to America's highways twenty six million trucks are taken off the road every year because people are able to move their commodities by barge. Let's talk about the Arkansas River for just a little bit as I said earlier that the river was born out of the flood of nineteen twenty seven and we had senator McClellan from Arkansas and senator Kerr from Oklahoma who work together to build a consensus in Congress to fund the civil works project at the time it was the most innovative and largest civil works projects ever funded by Congress and it took years to get it funded because not everyone agreed of its importance and its value but those two senators stuck to their guns they lobbied they brokered the net they negotiated their broad bipartisan bill to Congress and Congress funded one point two billion dollars one two point two billion with a B. you can't build anything for that today but that one point two billion dollars bill four hundred fifty plus miles of navigable waterways from Tulsa Oklahoma to the Mississippi River. ironically they were concerned that the project would not be fully funded so they opened they built the first lock and dam and Dardanelle who hears from Dardanelle surely someone there you go you were the first and today Dardanelles an amazing recreational component a great late great fishing terminate campgrounds and all that because of the lock and dam system and then they started building out from there the first barge reach Little Rock Arkansas in nineteen sixty nine because they had bill coming up through the locks and dams and then the first barge reached Tulsa Oklahoma in nineteen seventy one there eighteen lock and dams and thirteen of those in Arkansas all five of them are in Oklahoma and you've got some facts and figures in front of you but in twenty eighteen to the Arkansas River shipped about eighteen million tons of commodities and the Arkansas side with a value of about four point five billion dollars. I want to talk a little bit about floods because that we have to think about that is we think about this infrastructure as I mentioned earlier the locks and dams are to provide commerce but they also fly provide flood control you all know about the nineteen twenty seven flood in may nineteen ninety there was major rains in eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas and they in the raise the level of water calls the dams that were active capacity the locks and dams were exceeded floods were released and and and the river flooded the good news is the system worked and damage to property was minimal we had the same event in twenty nineteen twenty nineteen with the was the largest flood on record since the locks and dams existed and was the fourth largest flood on record since we've been keeping records we did have tragedies that Dardanelle because of the levy the other piece the levee breached but other than that most of the communities on the Arkansas River or say because the locks and dams to their purpose I'm not really here to talk about levees but that is a piece of infrastructure I know you all have the dressed it and we've tried to work on it but we need to not lose sight of that so the river works it's fifty years old last week two weeks ago and we're continuing to thrive and it is a valuable economic engine but the river is not without challenges miss Caldwell would tell you that the corps of engineers estimates there's two hundred fifty million dollars worth of critical needs on those eighteen locks and dams they define a critical need is something that is as a a piece of maintenance or an issue that needs to be maintained it has a fifty percent chance of failure think about this if we there are six lock and dams below Little Rock if one of those locks and dam fails. The twelve public private port terminal operators on the Arkansas River or probably out of business so we have to make sure that Congress funds that infrastructure at a clean takes care of those preventative needs. You all have the address in the past I think most of you probably know we're aware of this there's the Three Rivers project where the white the Mississippi in the Arkansas River come together for whatever reason the corps of engineers decided at the time instead of tying the Arkansas directly in the Mississippi they built a man made channel and some day mother nature's going to put the reverse back the way she wants them and if we don't control that system the river Arkansas River would be out of business the good news is because of your support several years ago because the work of the Arkansas lottery's Commission Congress has has funded and designed what they call the Three Rivers project which will stabilize the mouth of the river and four hundred fifty million dollars has been placed in the president's budget this year to make sure that project is done that's a real concern and it's basically a long man made levy that some day it could breach bring the rivers back together and commercial traffic could not come up the river and then finally the other thing you probably heard about on the Arkansas River is we as operators on the river believe that the channel should be twelve foot deep right now it's guaranteed to nine feet but if you're moving rock or at our lows fall low low value commodities it's hard to compete with twelve foot rivers my good friend Scott McGeorge out of pine bluff ended up closing of quarry in the Dardanelle Russellville area because he could not load the barges to twelve foot traffic and you could not compete with quarries in Kentucky and Tennessee and Ohio who were using the deeper rivers to move that rock to New Orleans in the Gulf the good news is again because of work of the waterways commission and others in Congress governor Hutchinson when he was in Congress senator Bozeman and others have supported that and Corbin juniors has re funded the study of that project to see if it makes sense to do. I wanna wrap I'm not gonna get red wrap up I wanna talk a little about the port and I want to say if you closing remarks and hopefully answer some questions. How many of you have been to the port of Little Rock this or how many of you've driven by the port Little Rock about that you know where it is it's it's all it's on the eastern edge of town I want you to think about this in nineteen fifty nine the City of Little Rock politicians the visionaries like yourself said you know what we do is when this river gets built we need to have a port and for those of you that grew up in little rock in nineteen fifty nine my dad who's no longer with this talks about the summer walking across the river from downtown little rock to North Little Rock because it dried up you talked about the springs of flooding and jumping the banks so in nineteen fifty nine and the visionary politicians the political leaders of the committee said we need a port and someone put their finger on the map and said let's put it here and think about nineteen fifty nine the interstate four forty didn't exist in fact interstate system did exist bill and Hillary Clinton airport was Adam's fill the small gravel runway the community college station was just now being built and quite honestly honestly there wasn't anything out there but a bunch of farms and they talk about there is a form out there raising goats that mingled around where everything is today. The City of Little Rock citizens believed in those visionary leaders and they've passed a one million dollar bond issue and the port of Little Rock was born fast forward today sixty years later on paper about fifty years later we kind of open about the same time the river did fifty years later we are four thousand plus acres in size we have forty three businesses from five foreign countries and there are seven thousand people to drive to the port of Little Rock every day for you as state leaders and elected officials I want you to know that those seven thousand people come from twenty three counties with a labor said study last year a third of the people that work or a third of the State a third of the counties in the state of Arkansas send someone to work at the port of Little Rock every day for a growing job we are continuing to attract and and and and and and recruit businesses around the world and that employment number will only grow. The point I want to make on that is is you talk about infrastructure you work with are not in others this major infrastructure investment and in the nineteen sixties and seventies that is known as the M. constable Colin Kerr Arkansas River navigation system has paid dividends a hundred fold the economic impact of the port of Little Rock to the state of Arkansas is five hundred million dollars a year in wages investment infrastructure return to taxes local taxes state tax property taxes earlier you were talking about Amazon and I will tell you that we are grateful to state did help with that economic development fund and is installing traffic signals at the interstate exit ramps to accommodate the two thousand plus vehicles that Amazon will bring to the port every day when they open in about three weeks we also use federal funds and city and county funds to at eleven million dollars of infrastructure improvements to that project to accommodate those needs but the port of Little Rock because of that innovative infrastructure investment that Congress made because of the support of the state over the years with the Arkansas waterways Commission and some of the grants that you provided in the support that you've given us and other ports on the river we're not alone we have time left in Fort Smith and public ports on the river there's a number of private ports the Oakley family does very well the river is important fifty five thousand jobs a year supported by the R. Arkansas's in the river system the account the numbers are in your packet I don't know them by heart but it's it's the real deal and if you talk about infrastructure in this committee and you look at how to spend Fund you've got some COVID relief funds I would encourage you to think about Arkansas's waterways roadways railways all of those things matter and it's a great story to tell a couple of industries at the port like Welspun the Indian gas and oil pipe company they could have located anywhere in the world that they located in Little Rock because of the Arkansas River. And that's something that all of you should be proud of in communities up and down the river from Fort Smith to Morrilton to Conway to Ozark they're taking advantage of the system and we need to not lose sight of that as we plan for the future in the next fifty years to make sure that Congress knows that you believe it's an important asset and that they're willing to continue investing that I could talk about it all afternoon I know it's close to quitting time or in time and I would like to thank you for the opportunity to visit with you today I'd like to think Senator Chesterfield for the invitation not be glad to try to answer any questions if anybody had any. Thank you have a very much and enjoyed your presentation and I I love the story of the Arkansas River I just think it's it's such a needs I I just I really enjoy it and I've I've I've I appreciate the history you have I apart from you know the incredible amounts of economic activity that is generated through the barges and the commercial traffic that's on the river this river being and navigable river I know I've had some conversations with some people in the past that were permanently developers that kind of AS visioning the Arkansas River more than just you know a river for barge traffic in commercial tie As purposes have you all talked about that as far as you know kind of building out of infrastructure of you know places where or the opportunities for it to be more of a tourist the end destination for navigation I I know there's some rivers and Georgia that empty out into like Savannah and and we due that port when we were there for an alleged state of conference but that use that you know kinda area for really just. To rest and travel and leisure so but you would have to have the necessary gas stations you know obviously along the way to be able to accommodate that type of a track but have you have you had any conversations or discussions about that Senator that's a great observation a purpose to comments I grew up in Little Rock and I remember growing up my mother dead said stay away from the river it's dangerous and it's not it's a it's an amazing body of water as a whole we I'm as I'm talking to statewide as a whole we do not do a good job of of of explaining or promoting the benefits of tourism and recreation and wildlife and fishing and duck hunting and bar mental control Dardanelle does a very good job of that of course primarily because if you were dropped in the middle of lake Dardanelle you would not realize that see Arkansas River just because the way the geography I do know there are communities the city of North Little Rock Lisa Ferrell and general action have done an amazing job embracing the river with their private development them reign of the river grill the bike trail the apartment living of the city of Ozarks trying to do some things there and their river it is something that we must do a much better job of it my colleagues at the port of Muskogee they have a private marina at the port they do recreational activities there is not we need to we don't do enough and that the port of Little Rock and we really don't do enough as a state to remind people that it is the recreational asset and it should be embraced and taken advantage of but that's a good a great point yeah I I'm I've known Lisa for a very long time and my I have I have a brother that has a sailboat there and and that and and it's been so much fun you know to set sail right there especially at dusk and downtown little rock and it's just really it's a beautiful. Lots but but but also the navigation down it you know being able to really think about being able to take a vote you know from here to the Mississippi River and down is is kind of a fun and neat adventure that I think you know we could perhaps capitalize on we we should up pre pandemic we did get a call from a the cruise line they wanted you know the bill on a river cruise yet in Europe and they were point with putting together a river cruise up the Arkansas of course then the pandemic at and I think come to a screeching halt that my hope is that maybe next year they'll reach back out to us they were gonna have a stop in Little Rock stop in Fort Smith that would've been a really neat deal like they do in Europe every day yeah I know that's and that was another reason why I ask the question because so hopefully they'll we've got their contact and you've read that reminds me I need to reach back out to them but hopefully once the cruise industry comes back to life that maybe they'll put a river cruise ship on the Arkansas that would come out of New Orleans up the Arkansas to Fort Smith and turn around to be an amazing experience to be incredible and I I just think that it is such an opportunity to take advantage of because of what we have you know to draw a lot of people to our state and through our state and so I I would just encourage you to do that because I just think that would be one of the cool things I may I may put you in charge of that sign I would let me in Senator Chesterfield would you go on it with. Well it's my hometown Senate I appreciate the way I would volunteer to reach out to both it is something we need to do that which I totally would volunteer to do that and and Greg Knapp Holtz is a friend who is very interested in that sort of thing. Any other questions comment from anyone. Thank you great well thank you and I know our our stories a little easier to tell than the predecessor but all of you're welcome to come to the port type please don't lose sight of the of Arkansas's and then water ways as we look at future policies and programs is very important to our state and we need to keep reminding Congress that they need to invest in the system so thank you for your time this afternoon and you have my card in the information if you have any questions for you if you want to come out right the tugboat just let me know thank you thank you. Seeing no other business we are adjourned.