LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Highway Commission on Wednesday rejected the idea of restructuring to make commissioners advocates for equally populated regions of the state.
“You can’t have spending based solely on population,” Commission Chairman Madison Murphy of El Dorado said after the vote, noting that the state’s primary highway network, about half of the state’s highway system, carries about 90 percent of the traffic.
“We took a good look at this, and basing (funding) solely on population is really not a good idea,” Murphy said.
Also Wednesday, the commission chose the apparent low bidder for the first phase of a project to widen Interstate 40 to six lanes between Little Rock and Conway.
Scott Bennett, director of the state Highway and Transportation Department, said highway officials spent hours studying a variety of proposals that would have divided road funding based on population.
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Bennett said only about $250 million of the department’s $1 billion annual budget is divided among the 10 highway districts that the five commissioners represent. The rest is obligated for operations and federally mandated programs, he said.
“There is a lot of money that (commissioners) don’t have discretion over,” Bennett said after the meeting. “We looked at our bridge maintenance management program, we looked at our safety projects and we set priorities on those, no matter where they are.”
The commission voted in March to study changing the current system in response to a proposed constitutional amendment that would have changed Amendment 42, which made the Highway Commission constitutionally independent, to bring highway funding under legislative control.
The measure, sponsored by Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Little Rock, was not among the proposed constitutional amendments the Legislature referred to the 2012 general election ballot.
Currently, each highway commissioner has equal jurisdiction statewide but serves as an advocate for two of the 10 highway districts, which receive the same amount of discretionary funding despite population differences.
“We’ve got to make sure we continue to spend the money throughout the state,” said Commissioner John Burkhalter of North Little Rock.
Hutchinson said later Wednesday that he was disappointed by the commission’s decision, adding it was his impression that the panel would move forward with advocacy districts and representation based on population.
Hutchinson said he withdrew the bill during this year’s legislative session after Dan Flowers, who was director of the department until this fall, read a statement during a joint meeting of the Senate and House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs committees saying officials would act on the issue.
“I told them it’s going to have to be done, it’s going to have to be based on population,” Hutchinson said Wednesday, recalling his comments to Flowers.
Hutchinson said it was too early to say whether he would renew his push for a constitutional change. “I’m going to reserve judgment and talk to them to see what’s up,” the senator said.
Murphy said later he did not recall Flowers making any commitment and that the commission spent a great deal of time studying the feasibility of advocacy districts based on equal population.
“We have taken many, many months, working with staff to seriously study this and we think that this is best solution we can come up with, looking at the totality of the law and looking at what’s best for highway planning,” he said. I-40 between Little Rock and Conway is one of the most traveled and congested highways in the state and frequently is backed up for miles during rush hour.
The apparent low bidder for the widening project was Mid-South Pavers LLC., of Nashville, Tenn., with a bid of $44.6 million.
That project will add a lane to both the eastbound and westbound lanes of I-40 for 8 miles from U.S. 65 at Conway to just east of the city near Lake Conway, said Randy Ort, spokesman for the state Highway and Transportation Department. Construction is expected to take about two years, Ort said.
He said the commission is expected to let three other bids over the next few years to complete the stretch.