Project: Widening of U.S. Hwy 70 from Hot Springs to I-30

Synopsis

The 17.8-mile segment of Highway 70 from Hot Springs, Arkansas in Garland County to I-30 in Saline County was widened from three to five lanes to improve add capacity to accommodate projected future traffic volumes and improve safety for current and future travelers. As part of the project, four bridges were replaced, the shoulders were widened, curves were straightened, hills were flattened, and a key intersection was signalized. Construction on the $78.5 million project began in December of 2016 and was completed several months ahead of schedule in June of 2018.

The widening project greatly improved the travel experience in terms of increasing spacing between vehicles as well as the smoothing of formerly tight curves and steep grade changes. Furthermore, the project allowed the speed limit to increase from 55 mph to 60 mph, which resulted in an increase in average travel speed from 55.8 MPH 60.1 MPH even while vehicle volumes increased.

The 17.8-mile segment of Highway 70 from Hot Springs, Arkansas in Garland County to I-30 in Saline County was widened from three to five lanes to improve add capacity to accommodate projected future traffic volumes and improve safety for current and future travelers. As part of the project, four bridges were replaced, the shoulders were widened, curves were straightened, hills were flattened, and a key intersection was signalized. Construction on the $78.5 million project began in December of 2016 and was completed several months ahead of schedule in June of 2018.

The widening project greatly improved the travel experience in terms of increasing spacing between vehicles as well as the smoothing of formerly tight curves and steep grade changes. Furthermore, the project allowed the speed limit to increase from 55 mph to 60 mph, which resulted in an increase in average travel speed from 55.8 MPH 60.1 MPH even while vehicle volumes increased.

This increase in travel speed reduced travel time between Hot Springs and Little Rock from just over an hour to around 45 minutes, which the local economic development agency in Hot Springs uses to help market the city for business attraction. However, in the five years since project completion, that selling point has not yet resulted in significant business location or expansion. Instead, the only economic activity that can be directly attributed to the widening is the construction of two new gas stations along the highway after the widening project.

Despite the meager economic response to date, local stakeholders view the project as a success in terms of improved travel experience and improved capacity to accommodate future growth. Furthermore, a major widening project on I-30 between the Hwy 70/I-30 junction and Little Rock began shortly after the Hwy 70 was complete, and is scheduled for completion later in 2023. Ongoing construction on that project has dampened the impacts of travel speed gains resulting from the Hwy 70 widening. Stakeholders anticipate a more noticeable economic response once that project is complete, although those gains would be not only from the end of construction disruptions, but also from the combined effects of a wider corridor.

Location & Transportation Connections

U.S. Highway 70 runs east-west across the state of Arkansas, from De Queen, Oklahoma to Memphis, Tennessee. The highway passes through the Arkansas cities of Hot Springs, Little Rock, North Little Rock and Memphis. Hwy 70 is a two-lane rural highway for most of its 290-mile length, however it runs concurrently with Interstate 30 for approximately 30 miles between Haskell and Little Rock. In Little Rock, I-30 intersects with I-40. In Hot Springs, the U.S. Hwy 70 Business Loop traverses the north part of city, while the main U.S. Hwy 70 cuts south and becomes U.S. Highway 270 to traverse the southern portion of the city. Both the U.S. Hwy 70 Business Loop and U.S. Arkansas Highway 7 runs north-south through the middle of the city continuing on to the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. Highways 7 and 70 are the most significant roadways serving Hot Springs.

Hot Springs Memorial Field (HOT), a municipal airport in Hot Springs, has commercial service to Dallas-Fort Worth, TX and Memphis, TN. Bill and Hillary National Airport (LIT) is located approximately 50 miles east of Hot Springs in Little Rock.

Community Character & Project Context

Hot Springs, AR, population 37,930, just outside the Little Rock metropolitan statistical area, is on the edge of the Ouachita Mountains in Garland County. The area between Little Rock and Hot Springs is mountainous and sparsely populated. Lonsdale is the largest town between the two, with a 2020 population of just 102.

The area has a strong tourism industry, with many natural hot springs, resorts, historic districts, and lakes. Visit Hot Springs, the local tourism bureau, reports that the area receives approximately 6 million visitors per year. The most recent visitor survey, conducted in 2018, found that tourism increased by 18% between 2013 and 2018, well above the national rate of tourism growth. The survey found that the vast majority of Hot Springs Visitors arrive by car, with only 8% arriving by air. Just over half of day trip visitors come from within Arkansas (59%), primarily from Little Rock, while some visitors from far away states such as California, New York, and Florida, make day trips to Hot Springs within larger overnight trips in or near Arkansas. About one-third of overnight visitors come from within Arkansas (32%), with smaller shares from Texas (13%) and Memphis/Tennessee (5%). While visitors from Texas would not arrive/depart using the improved segment of Hwy 70, those from elsewhere in Arkansas and Tennessee are highly likely to do so.

An annual tourism economic impact study for Garland County’s tourism bureau Visit Hot Springs found that 2021 tourism indicators significantly surpassed pre-pandemic levels. According to the report, the tourism industry generated $63.1 million in tax revenue for state and local governments, supporting 6,400 travel-related jobs with wages of nearly $161 million. This represented an increase of 30% over 2019 visitor spending.

The largest attraction is Hot Springs National Park, which is the only National Park within a 500-mile radius. Visitation to the National Park grew at an average rate of just over 1% per year between 2010 and 2019. Visitation declined only slightly in 2020, and has increased dramatically since then. A recent National Park Service report found that Hot Springs National Park drew 2.1 million visitors in 2021, with visitor spending of $154 million, supporting 2,200 jobs. In 2022, visitation surpassed 2.6 million, a 103% increase over 2012 visitation and 2023 is on track to surpass 3 million.

Project Description & Motives

Prior to the widening, this portion of Hwy 70 consisted of two travel lanes with five-foot shoulders and intermittent eastbound and westbound passing lane. The project widened the road to two travel lanes in each direction with a continuous center turn lane, for a total of five travel lanes.

A pre-project ARDOT traffic analysis found that between 2013 and 2033, average daily traffic (ADT) on Hwy 70 in Garland and Saline Counties was expected to grow by approximately 38%, increasing Garland County’s Hwy 70 ADT from 11,800 to 16,300 and Saline County’s Hwy 70 ADT from 13,400 to 18,300. The ARDOT analysis concluded that without capacity improvements, this increase would create unacceptable levels of congestion.

ARDOT considered four improvement programs, ranging from a no-build option to a four-lane divided limited access highway. Ultimately, an alternative comprised of four travel lanes with paved, flush median and eight-foot shoulders was identified as the most economical way to meet safety and capacity needs. In order to implement this improvement, both Garland and Saline Counties needed to repeal a 1953 state DOT administrative order that had required the eventual construction of a limited access highway along that corridor.

The final design was a $78.5 million project that widened 17.5 miles of the highway to five lanes, replaced four bridges, and improved traveler safety by widening the shoulders, straightening curves, flattening hills and installing a traffic signal at the intersection with State Highway 128. The project was completed in June of 2018, three months ahead of schedule.

The project was undertaken as part of Arkansas Department of Transportation’s Connecting Arkansas Program (CAP) launched in 2012 through a voter-approved amendment to the state constitution implementing a half-cent sales tax dedicated to the state’s transportation system. It received a 2019 America's Transportation Award from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) in the category of operational excellence.

Transportation Impacts

ARDOT daily traffic estimates indicate that pre-project volume projections for 2033 had already been nearly or completely met more than a decade sooner than anticipated. By 2021, AADT on the Garland portion of the project had already reached more than 90% of 2033 projected volume and ADT on the Saline County portion had surpassed expected levels by 4%.

Project safety improvements – widened shoulders, straightened curves, flattened hills, and the signalization of a key intersection - allowed a speed limit increase from 55 mph to 60 mph. This resulted in an increase in average travel speed from 55.8 MPH in 2016 to 60.1 MPH in 2019, indicating a continuation of free flow traffic conditions despite increased volumes.

Anecdotally, the project has cut travel time to Little Rock by about 15 minutes, bringing it from just over an hour to around 45 minutes. Though the corridor was never congested enough to create periods of stop-and-go traffic, stakeholders report that the added road capacity has allowed for increased space between vehicles. Taken along with the safety improvements, the Hwy 70 widening project is reported to have improved the travel experience on the roadway.

Demographic, Economic & Land Use Impacts

Two new gas stations with an unspecified number of jobs were built along the highway after the widening project that likely would not have been built without the widening. According to interviews, this is the only economic activity that can be directly attributed to the highway. However, this understates the economic effects of the highway widening for several reasons, some related to the project and unrelated reasons discussed under Non-Transportation Factors.

With regard to the project itself, the widening was undertaken to accommodate future growth rather than to alleviate an existing bottleneck. The roadway has continued to accommodate essentially free flow traffic while travel volumes continue to build, indicating that the facility is performing as designed. During this period, the region’s tourism industry has flourished and significant development and investment has taken place in downtown Hot Springs. Though this growth is attributable to other factors, it is possible that the pre-project Hwy 70 would have presented a barrier to some of this growth or to future growth. It is difficult to identify the number of tourists, jobs created, or dollars of investment that would not have occurred under this counterfactual.

Furthermore, the time travel savings resulting from the widening were soon interrupted by another important highway capacity improvement. Less than a year after Hwy 70 was widened, work began on an ambitious widening project on I-30 in Saline County between the widened segment of Hwy 70 and Little Rock. The 3.5-year project has necessitated many lane closures and traffic shifts, which has created travel delays that somewhat off-set gains achieved by the Hwy 70 widening. That project is reportedly on schedule for completion in late 2023 and local stakeholders anticipate that between the end of disruptions from that project and the travel benefits of both widening projects could generate impacts that are more directly attributable to the transportation infrastructure improvements.

The travel time savings that put Hot Springs from over an hour from Little Rock to just 45 minutes from the capital city has allowed the economic development arm of Hot Springs Metro Partnership to market the city as part of an expanded workforce and housing market for Little Rock businesses and residents. Though this is just one of many factors the agency promotes to attract businesses and has not yet been recognized as a significant factor in any of the recent business growth, it may still prove important. It is not uncommon for the benefits of this type of project, which does not provide an entirely new connection or open up new lands for development, to phase in over a period of five years or more. This project was completed only five years ago, a time period that included the COVID-19 pandemic. Though the pandemic did not appear to have had a negative impact on Hot Spring’s leading economic driver, tourism, it has disrupted business expansion and location decisions and real estate development activities in most industries across the country.

Because stakeholders recognize the transportation benefits of the project and acknowledge the importance of the roadway in the economy, it may be worth revisiting this project in three to five years to see if the economic effects are more obvious given sufficient time. However, it may always be difficult to distinguish the role of the Hwy 70 widening from the myriad of other economic drivers and transportation infrastructure projects affecting economic growth in Hot Springs.

Non-Transportation Factors

In addition to the factors described above, several non-transportation factors overshadowed the impacts that the highway widening has so far had on Hot Spring’s economy. First, Hot Springs’s economy is driven by tourism, and in particular by visitation to Hot Springs National Park and to Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort. The steady increase in attendance at Hot Springs National Park preceded the widening, and to the extent that it has accelerated in recent years, that appears primarily due to a post-COVID boom in outdoor recreation tourism. Similarly, the Oaklawn racetrack, hotel, and casino, which is one of the most visited attractions in the state, has recently undergone a $100 million expansion. This investment has spurred some new residential and supporting retail development. However, this activity was not contingent on the highway expansion and would have occurred without the project. Because the top drivers of the regional economy experienced significant growth un-related to the highway widening, it is difficult to attribute a share of that growth to the Hwy 70 widening.

The second factor that has overshadowed the impacts of the highway widening is the downtown revitalization effort that began in 2014. The catalyst for this revitalization was a devastating fire that consumed the historic Mystic hotel. Built in 1882, the hotel closed in 2006 and remained vacant until the 2014 fire destroyed much of the structure. Though the hotel had fallen into disrepair before the fire, it was considered a landmark in the heart of downtown and its loss prompted the business and hospitality community to mobilize around downtown revitalization. The result has been the establishment of some 200 new businesses, the purchase/sale of around 150 downtown buildings for redevelopment, and $135 million of investment. This revitalization did not depend on the Hwy 70 widening project and was significant enough to overshadow less obvious impacts that may have resulted from it.

As noted above, it is possible that Hwy 70’s former width and alignment would have presented a barrier to some of this growth or to future growth. However, because of the confluence of factors discussed above, it is difficult to identify the number of tourists, jobs created, or dollars of investment that would not have occurred in the absence of the project or to allocate a share of the growth that has occurred to the project.

Citations

AASHTO, “Arkansas Department of Transportation – Highway 70 Widening”, America’s Transportation Awards webpage (https://americastransportationawards.org/arkansas-department-of-transportation-highway-70-widening/).

AMP Staff, “The Hot Springs Revival”, Arkansas Money & Politics, 2 Feb 2018 (https://armoneyandpolitics.com/hot-springs-revival/).

ARDOT, “Purpose and Need, Widening Highway 70 from Hot Springs to Interstate 30, Garland and Saline Counties, Draft Executive Summary”, March 2013.

Associated Press, “Fire Still Burns at Landmark Hot Springs Hotel”, KUAR Public Radio, 28 Feb, 2014. (https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2014-02-28/fire-still-burns-at-landmark-hot-springs-hotel).

“Hot Springs 2018 Visitor Research, Final Report”, July, 2019, Longwoods Travel for Visit Hot Springs (https://www.hotsprings.org/site/assets/files/7127/hot_springs_2018_visitor_research_-_final_report_1.pdf).

Leigh, J. “Tourism receipts rise for Spa City”, Arkansas Democrat Gazette, 5 Oct 2022 (https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2022/oct/05/tourism-receipts-rise-for-spa-city/?business).

NPMRDS courtesy of ARDOT staff.

“Tourism to Hot Springs National Park creates $208 million in Economic Benefits,” National Park Service (https://www.nps.gov/hosp/learn/news/2022-economic-benefits.htm).

U.S. Census Bureau 2020 Census.

Interviews

Cole McCaskill, Vice President of Economic Development, Hot Springs Metro Partnership

Jacqueline Hou, Senior Transportation Planning Engineer, ARDOT Project Planning Section

Steve Arrison, CEO, Visit Hot Springs

Andrew Warren, Staff Transportation Planning Engineer, ARDOT Project Planning Section

Footnotes

Case study developed by EBP.