Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Infrastructure Streets topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
City staff outlines 2023–25 resurfacing program, board presses for ward equity and online data access
Summary
Public works staff described outcomes of the 2023–25 resurfacing contracts, a new citywide street-condition mapping tool and a plan to spend roughly $1 million in leftover bond funds on three arterial segments; board members raised equity concerns after Ward 2 and Ward 7 received no additional segments in the current selections.
City public works staff briefed the Little Rock City Board of Directors on the status of the 2023–2025 resurfacing program, a new data-driven street-condition mapping tool and a plan to use roughly $1 million in leftover bond funds on three arterial street segments.
The briefing mattered because staff said the data tool provides a citywide inventory of street conditions intended to guide future resurfacing choices, and because several board members pressed staff about why the three segments chosen did not include projects in Ward 2 or Ward 7.
“Approximately a month ago, the board approved us to do a change order to do a few more streets in that resurfacing program,” said a public works presenter identified in the packet as Manish. He told the board the city maintains about 1,200 centerline miles of streets and that the mapping work, completed after a January 2024 board action, created color-coded condition grades and street-level video for the entire system. Manish said about 70% of city streets are in fair, good or excellent condition and about 7% are in the worst (“lost”) category.
Staff said two contract cycles handled the bulk of the work: a 2023 contract of about 29 streets costing roughly $2.7 million, and a 2024–25 contract covering about 59 streets and approximately $6.7 million. From those contracts and earlier work, Manish said about $1 million remained unspent, and staff recommended using it for three segments selected by combining pavement condition, average daily traffic and cost estimates.
Manish identified the three candidate segments: Shackleford Road (Executive Center Drive to the first signal south of I-630, carrying about 22,000 vehicles per day), Chenal Parkway (Bowman to Hermitage, near Barnes & Noble, carrying “approximately 40 to 45,000 vehicles a day,” cost estimate about $580,000) and West 30th Street (from the roundabout to John Barrow Road, about 12,000 vehicles per day, estimate about $170,000). "The total of those 3 is approximately $980,000," Manish said.
Board members pressed for more detail and fairness. Director Wyatt observed that Ward 2 and Ward 7 had no segments among the new selections and asked whether that meant those wards’ streets were exempt; Manish responded that selections were data-driven, weighing pavement condition, traffic classification and lane function. "So that's how we made that decision," he said. Multiple board members asked for the ward-level maps and for the city to post the condition map, and Manish said the underlying video dataset is large (about 2 terabytes) and staff would look into online access.
Director Hines asked whether the city was using additives on arterial overlays; Manish said an additive called Fortify (a Kevlar fiber product, described in the presentation as "1 pound per ton") had been used on at least one 2023 section and that it typically adds roughly 15% to the overlay cost but can extend service life on high-traffic arterials.
The board did not take a final vote at the agenda-review meeting. Staff said the selected segments are meant to use remaining bond dollars and that the city will continue to refine selections and share ward-level maps and cost/contract details with the board.
