While a new, modern $15 million Plainview Gate at the Pine Bluff Arsenal is a welcome development, it doesn’t come without significant considerations and an estimated $10 million highway upgrade.
Larry E. Wright of LE Wright & Associates PLLC said about the funding, “We hit a major milestone, but we have more to go. At this point, neither Dexter nor Plainview are suitable for the Arsenal’s needs.”
Wright is White Hall’s consulting engineer and is the White Hall Military Affairs Advisory Committee Grant Project manager.
According to Cheryl Avery, an arsenal civilian spokeswoman, approximately 1,000 civilian and military employees and personnel enter the arsenal daily, with about 11,000 tons of shipments coming and going annually.
Wright said the Arsenal has two entrance points, the Dexter and Plainview gates, but neither is entirely suitable for its needs.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Currently, commercial vehicles can only use the Dexter Gate entrance, but the street-level railroad crossing makes it a hazard.
The Plainview Gate isn’t designed to handle commercial traffic and is located at the end of a narrow, two-lane, narrow-shouldered highway.
Furthermore, there’s an 80-year-old bridge that can’t handle today’s larger, heavier commercials.
However, there is a viaduct that keeps all traffic above any passing trains, and Wright said, “It is considered the safer option.”
FUNDING THE UPGRADES
Wright said moving all the passenger and commercial traffic to Plainview Gate on Hoadley Road would require major pavement upgrades and a new bridge.
Even with the Arkansas Department of Transportation’s recent upgrades to the highway, Wright said Hoadley Road remains “inadequate,” and the military doesn’t fund road construction projects.
Justin Selby, military program manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Little Rock District, said the money would have to come from ArDOT, not from the Department of Defense’s military construction funding.
THE PROBLEM
The highway, also known as Holland Road inside White Hall city limits from Interstate 530, Exit 32, to Dollarway Road, is already handling the commercial truck traffic headed to the arsenal’s Dexter Gate. The vehicles turn off the highway onto Dollarway Road before reaching the Dexter entrance.
However, the plan calls for the new Plainview Gate to handle all passenger and commercial traffic, which means drivers would remain on Arkansas 256 from the interstate to the new gate.
After crossing Dollarway into Jefferson County, the 2-mile stretch of highway is known as Hoadley Road.
ArDOT recently rehabbed Arkansas 256 from Interstate 530 to the arsenal with a $2.2 million mill and 2-inch overlay as part of a pavement preservation project. This roadwork also added 2-foot shoulders to both sides of the Hoadley Road portion.
The 80-year-old Caney Creek Bridge also underwent renovations. This included new approach gutters and transitional steel railing, which replaced the concrete wall leading up to the bridge.
Still, Wright said it’s not enough to make the Hoadley Road portion suitable for commercial traffic.
THE SOLUTION
According to a 2022 Compatible Economic Development Assessment Report, the critical components that must be addressed include widening the narrow two-lane highway to 12-foot lanes with 8-foot sloping shoulders.
The report also calls for replacing its more than 80-year-old Caney Bayou Bridge.
It wasn’t built to handle modern traffic weights or demands, and frequent flooding makes it more hazardous.
AN ECONOMIC CORNERSTONE
Before 2010, the arsenal employed about 2,000 in the destruction of its chemical weapons and other military-related manufacturing operations, but the number has dwindled by at least half. Some in the community worry about its ability to remain a vital military installation.
“When it was named the Pine Bluff Arsenal, its namesake was the nearest city, about eight miles away,” Mayor Noel Foster said. “The Arsenal’s perimeter butts up against White Hall, founded in 1964, and continues to be one of its largest and best-paying employees. The Arsenal helped White Hall become what it is today.”
He added that its viability is critical to the city’s economic engine.
When the study was released, U.S. Army Col. Tod Marchand, then the arsenal’s commander, said closing the arsenal would be like “a bomb going off.”
The study estimated that 951 direct, indirect and induced jobs are created by the industries located on the post.
The arsenal generates an annual payroll of about $62 million and spends about $96 million locally and around the state annually.
Foster said, “The economic impact is eye-opening.”
A photo shows flooding along Caney Creek Bridge built in the 1940s. The newly planned Plainview Gate will become the only commercial access point at the Pine Bluff Arsenal and will require a major upgrade to Arkansas 256, also known as Hoadley Road. (Special to The Commercial/Pine Bluff Arsenal)