LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) – The Arkansas Department of Transportation held its final public meeting Tuesday to talk about plans to widen Highway 10 in West Little Rock.
Many people expressed concern to ArDOT after it unveiled a plan that placed a roundabout near the Walton Heights neighborhood for easier access onto Rodney Parham and Cantrell. If passed, ArDOT would have had to demolish some homes in order to put it in place. Residents in Walton Heights sent in their complaints and ArDOT went back to the drawing board.
“We were able to make modifications to the design to satisfy their concerns yet still accomplish what we as a department wanted to do in making this a very safe intersection,” Spokesperson Danny Straessle said.
Straessle said the new plan gets rid of the roundabout. There is now an access road that connects Southridge Drive to River Mountain Road and onto Rodney Parham. Over 57,000 cars travel through Highway 10 in West Little Rock every day.
"The project we have lined up here is to make the intersection more efficient and safe,” Straessle said.
ArDOT also unveiled its plans to make modifications to the Cantrell and Rodney Parham intersection. The new plan includes putting in a single point interchange. This means the current stoplight will be eliminated, and Cantrell will go up and over Rodney Parham.
“Where you have Rodney Parham and Cantrell intersect, that is a choke point,” Straessle said.
This new interchange also includes eliminating stoplights from Pleasant Valley Drive to Sam Peck Road.
"You've got like five, six, seven different stoplights there. It'll allow you to seamlessly progress east or west,” Straessle said.
Residents in Walton Heights will no longer be able to turn left onto Cantrell from Southridge Drive. ArDOT is eliminating that stoplight, so residents have to take the new access road to go eastbound Cantrell.
Tom Adams said he is mostly for the new plan, but he worries the fire station on Southridge Drive will have problems making a left turn onto Cantrell.
“Getting to this area here could be a problem if you can’t make a left from the fire station,” he said.
Wesley Walls lives in River Ridge and he believes the plan will help alleviate traffic.
"It's a pretty complicated intersection with the freeway at Cantrell and Highway 10. There's a tremendous amount of traffic there. They've done a reasonably good job of addressing concerns,” he said.
The new plan also widens Cantrell near Pleasant Valley to three lanes in each direction.
Construction is expected to begin next summer.