U.S. Congressman John Boozman 3rd District of Arkansas

House Seal Outline

Share This Page Slashdot Del.icio.us Google Digg Reddit Newsvine Furl Yahoo Facebook

Washington, Apr 28, 2009 -

U.S. Representative John Boozman (R-AR) today called I-49 a high priority corridor for this country and urged his colleagues to support and secure funding in the Highway Bill in testimony before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Highways and Transit Subcommittee.

Boozman promoted the completion of I-49 at the Subcommittee hearing on ‘High Priority Projects’ that will be considered for funding in the Highway Bill, legislation that directs federal money to road projects every five years. The Highway Bill is scheduled for reauthorization this year.

When completed, I-49 will provide a north-south corridor through Arkansas for commerce and travelers to utilize. It will run from the Port of New Orleans up to Kansas City, Missouri where it connects with I-29 and I-35, which run north to the Canadian border.

A majority of the road is complete, but stretches - including portions in Arkansas - need further construction. The uncompleted portions in the Third District of Arkansas are the segments from Fort Smith south to Greenwood and from Bentonville north to the Missouri border. The estimated cost of completion of these segments in the Third District is more than $400 million and completing the entire Arkansas portion of I-49 is estimated to be more than $1 billion.

Here are excerpts from Boozman’s testimony:

“Environmental work has been completed for all major unfinished sections of the roadway. Records of Decision for these sections have been signed by the Federal Highway Administration. Construction funding is the only remaining obstacle to the completion of the Interstate.”

“Construction and completion of I-49 will support the creation of up to 206,290 new jobs.”

“It is estimated that once complete, I-49 will provide more than $817 million in annual savings to the nation’s economy by reducing travel time, transportation costs and congestion. Over six years these savings will total over $4.9 billion or more.”

Boozman is a co-chairman of the I-49 Caucus and a member of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee.