Highway Improvements Related to New Tyson Feed Mill Bid

LITTLE ROCK – With construction underway at the new Tyson feed mill site near Cross Roads in Hempstead County, bids are now under consideration to upgrade Arkansas Highway 195 to meet the increase weight and use the roadway will face after the facility is completed.

The project will involve overlaying thirteen and a quarter miles between Fulton and Washington, along with related earthwork, trenching and shoulder preparation.

Classified as a Federal Aid Project, two bids have been received for the Arkansas Department of Transportation to consider.  Redstone Construction Group of Little Rock bid $9,492,536.49 and  R.K. Hall LLC of Paris, Texas bid $12,438,941.22.

At the March Hempstead County Quorum Court meeting, a representative of Tyson, Bob Chavis, said the plant would process 18,000 tons of feed per week. It would eventually employ 50 people. Construction time would be 14 months with about a 40 person crew on the construction site.

At that meeting, JP Ed Darling said $9 million dollars is needed to improve Highway 195. He said $3 million will come from Tyson, $3 million from ArDOT, and $1.5 million from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission in the form of a grant. In addition, Hempstead County agrees to take over maintenance of portions of three lightly traveled state highways. These highways include portions of 332, 234,and 355. The total area is about 10 miles. The JP’S approved a resolution to cement the agreement with the state putting in an additional $1.5 million dollars in the project in lieu of the county taking over those roadways. The JP’s also approved a resolution authorizing the issuance of industrial development revenue bonds to finance the complex. The complex will receive tax abatement in the amount of $32 million for ten years with the company paying taxes on a valuation of $32 million for that period and then the full $64 million value after ten years.

Darling said the $65 million dollar project will be second only to the Turk Plant near McNab in terms of the largest capital expenditures in Hempstead County history.

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At the ArDOT bid opening last week, a Nevada County project was also under consideration. Smackover Paving Company of Smackover was the only bidder at $237,016.60 for a state aid job to surface and reseal County Road 20.

(Information from the March Quorum Court meeting was previously published by HopePrescott.com written by Mark Keith.)