2025 Texas & Southeast Best Projects
Best Highway/Bridge: 30 Crossing
30 Crossing
Rock and North Little Rock, Ark.
BEST PROJECT
Submitted by Garver LLC
Owner Arkansas Dept. of Transportation
GC/CM Kiewit-Massman Construction
Lead Design Firm Burns & McDonnell
Project Management/OVTI Garver LLC
As the largest infrastructure project in the Arkansas Dept. of Transportation’s history—with a lump sum of $632.9 million— 30 Crossing required extensive coordination, trust and communication between all parties. Scope of work included rebuilding 4.7 miles of aging Interstate 30 and I-40 through the center of Little Rock and North Little Rock and across the Arkansas River on a heavily traveled commuter corridor that averages more than 120,000 vehicles per day.
This was also the first design-build project in the agency’s history, with the agency and contractor team specifically opting for design-build with optimization and refinement (DBOR). The DBOR approach gave ARDOT and the contractor space after the award to work through scope adjustments, utility conflicts and permitting without rushing to break ground.
Photo by Garver
Under this method, project stakeholders spent the first six months after the award working through scope, cost and coordination before locking in the final terms of the project. This process allowed for additional planning to help avoid common issues seen on large design-build projects. Rather than adopting the traditional design-build approach of organizing work packages by phase, the team decided to package the project geographically, which allowed for fewer traffic flow disruptions.
This coordinated effort also saw the project reach completion six months early and within budget in November 2024.
One of the biggest challenges was reconstructing the 3,360-ft Arkansas River Bridge, which had to stay operational throughout the project. Both eastbound and westbound directions were rebuilt into three through lanes and two collector-distributor lanes, plus an auxiliary lane.
By reconfiguring the bridge and adjacent highway infrastructure, ARDOT reclaimed 14 acres of land previously paved with concrete. The new green areas now provide parks, trails and other community-centered spaces. Improvements were also made underneath as scope included an improved channel for barge traffic on the river.
Photo by Garver
When a planned multi-month ramp closure threatened to impact downtown access, the team utilized joint planning to construct a workaround that cut the closure time to just 10 days.
Over the course of 1.87 million work hours spanning across 51 months, the project recorded only one lost-time incident and one restricted duty case. The project team also incorporated craft-led safety observations and encouraged peer-to-peer accountability. Other efforts included job hazard analyses and the use of advanced fall protection systems, especially during structural steel and bridge demolition operations over live traffic and water.
The early collaboration between agency and contractor paid off. From the start, ARDOT, Kiewit-Massman Construction (KMC), Garver and other stakeholders kept lines of communication open. When a planned multi-month ramp closure threatened to impact downtown access, the team regrouped to come up with alternative solutions. Through joint planning, the contractors and ARDOT figured out a workaround that cut the closure time down to just 10 days, keeping traffic moving.
