Hope Lions Hear Program on Arkansas Department of Transportation

By Mark Keith, 06/17/24 5:31 PM

The Hope Lions Club heard from District Engineer William Cheatham and Construction Engineer Jeremy Thomas on Monday (6-17).  Cheatham outlined a lot of projects ArDot is working on in the Hempstead County area.

Cheatham noted there’s a “box culvert” job at Patmos on state highway 355.  That job cost about $2.4 million dollars and he noted it is almost complete.  Cheatham said ArDot completed a job on the Hope bypass in January.  This was about a $5 million dollar project which also included substantial improvement on the striping on the bypass.  Another project was paving US 278 from 332 to Ozan.  Cheatham said that is nearly finished.  On the 6th Street project in Hope, Cheatham said there have been some contractor issues but their part of the project is almost finished and the city of Hope will handle the paving.  There is a job coming up on highway 195 east of Blevins and south of 371 in which 3 bridges will be replaced by box culverts.  This job should begin in July and plans are for it to be completed in November.  Cheatham also said in Nevada County they’re building a new bridge on highway 387 at White Oak Lake.  That should be completed by December.  Another Nevada County job is US 278 from south of Rosston to Ouachita County will be repaved soon.

In area projects coming up into 2026, Cheatham says there are about $39 million dollars in projects coming up affecting Hempstead County.  Highway 29 north of Blevins is set to get two bridges replaced.  Cheatham estimated this will be a $3 to $5 million dollar job and will be let in January.  ArDot plans to repave highway 29 from Lewisville to Hope in 2025.  Highway 29 between highway 332 and Blevins should see four miles of road overlayed in 2026.  In Hope, Hazel Street is scheduled for overlay.  Also highway 73 towards Nevada County should be overlayed in 2026.  On highway 32 between Hope and Bodcaw, ArDot plans to replace two bridges with box culverts and raise the grade about 5 miles.  Over on the west side of Hempstead County, a section of highway 32 from Beards Bluff towards Saratoga is scheduled for work in 2026.  Cheatham also noted highway 73 from north of Hope to Saratoga is scheduled for overlay in 2025.  This will affect about 18 and a half miles.  Cheatham says highway 174 south of Hope to Spring Hill is scheduled for work in the next couple of years and highway 355 from Spring Hill is scheduled for work with the addition of some shoulders in 2025.

A project set to begin next month is work on two bridges on 195 north of McCaskill to the Little Missouri River.  These will be replaced by box culverts.  The bridges were apparently damaged in a 2019 flood.  Cheatham also said some work is scheduled for US 371 east of Blevins this year to fix issues from the 2019 floods.

Cheatham said ArDot has a new online feature for questions is on the ArDot website.  He said there’s a “contact us” link that opens to “ask ArDot” and helps the highway department know what might need some work.

The Lions had questions and Cheatham did a great job answering them.  He also noted that I-30 in Texarkana from Texas to I-49 will be widened to 3 lanes in 2026.

The club enjoyed the program very much.