MONTICELLO — A project to extend Arkansas 83 Spur to U.S. 278 was formally christened just outside Monticello Elementary School on Friday.
The state highway leads to the University of Arkansas at Monticello from Old Warren Road, but the $30 million project will extend the road north to go over the Arkansas Midland Railroad and connect to U.S. 278, west of U.S. 425. In addition, two roundabouts will also be constructed.
Presently, those who commute from Drew Memorial Hospital or the Monticello School District campuses take either Old Warren Road or Jordan Drive going east to reach U.S. 425 south of U.S. 278, which runs east to west and separates the northern and southern halves of Monticello. But city leaders and engineers with the Arkansas Department of Transportation, or ArDOT, say the new connector will unite both sides of Monticello and strengthen its economy as a whole, ease traffic flow and increase safety.
“It connects our community to our university better,” said Nita McDaniel, director of the Monticello Economic Development Commission. “It does help alleviate traffic congestion problems we’ve had in our city for a long time. It will help with emergency services, access to our hospital, our two public school districts and the university … gosh, the list is long of all the benefits.”
Mobley Contractors was awarded the project, which is scheduled for completion by early 2026. The city poured in $2.5 million — $709,000 of which was awarded by the Delta Regional Authority — and Drew County added $505,000. Other funding was made available by the federal government and ArDOT.
ArDOT will turn over portions of Arkansas 83 Spur and Arkansas 83 to the city and county once this project and a resurfacing of 83 are completed.
McDaniel said funding began with Allen Maxwell, a state legislator who became Monticello’s mayor in 2011 and died while in office in 2014.
As a state legislator, McDaniel said, Maxwell requested $1 million in federal aid that went to Monticello while he was mayor.
“This is not, ‘Oh, Monticello is getting another road,’” McDaniel said. “This is literally addressing safety, first responders, freight. It’s addressing so many issues in our community, and I appreciate that ArDOT saw that importance for our city. We’re here today after that long road.”
Marie Holder, a member of the Arkansas Highway Commission, said the project is more than 1.5 miles from Jordan Drive to U.S. 278. Portions of the new road will be three lanes and other parts will be two lanes, with one roundabout at 83 Spur and Jordan Drive and the other at Scogin Drive and Old Warren Road. The hospital is situated between both locations.
“Anytime we introduce another level of control at an intersection, in the form of a signal or roundabout, we see improved throughput with traffic and a reduced number in severe crashes,” said Jared D. Wiley, chief engineer of pre-construction with ArDOT. “Roundabouts are especially great in that regard. We do have crashes that are usually minor in nature, but we don’t see those head-ons or what they call T-bone crashes in the intersections.”
