09/19/2026
Arkansas Department of Transportation representatives recently gave western Arkansas leaders an up close tour of the construction site for the new I-49 bridge across the Arkansas River and it was amazing! Manhattan Bridge is the general contractor and they were very proud to show off their work. Understandably so.
The new I-49 bridge is nearly one mile long. It will connect an existing I-49 segment in Sebastian County, Arkansas from the City of Barling to Gun Club Road (the first exit ramp north) in Crawford County, Arkansas.
The full bridge span will be 12 feet high and 400 feet long to allow sufficient space for barges to pass between the columns underneath. It will take more than 100,000 nuts and bolts to piece the steel sections together. The span sections arrived by truck from AFCO Steel in Van Buren, Arkansas, just down the road and around a couple of corners (over the river and through the woods, literally). They said it was a little tricky making the corners. 😳😆😂. At one time, there were 22 cranes on the job site. They were down to 17 cranes that day.
Additional shoring and safety features are built around the piers of the bridge to prevent critical damage in the event of a barge collision. If the necessary span had been more than 400 feet, a suspension bridge would have been required and that would have increased costs significantly. Whew!
The next segment north will include the Clear Creek entry/exit ramps in Alma. Then the middle segment to connect that one to Gun Club Road. The final portion of the project will be to connect the Clear Creek segment to I-49 South from Fayetteville where it Intersects I-40. It will be a flyover ABOVE the existing exit ramps. If you’ve ever driven those curves, you know they are very high as they pass over I-40, so that means the I-49 over passes may seem as high as the “nosebleed section” in Razorback Stadium. 😳😂 Won’t that be exciting to drive!!!!
In related discussions, leaders learned about groundbreaking designs for barges that are being tested in Europe. They are more easily maneuverable and displace less water caused by freight weight because they sit higher in the water. When those become available, they could dramatically change freight tonnage on the Arkansas River between Fort Smith/Van Buren and the Mississippi River at Memphis.
A proposed intramodal facility in Van Buren to serve river, truck, and Class I rail freight would have a tremendous impact on logistics, transportation, and warehousing for the entire nation and North America (think Canada to Mexico and the Gulf). Even the XNA airport in northwest Arkansas and the Fort Smith Regional Airport are part of the regional equation. Incredibly, all of this activity is in sync with the continuation of the I-49 corridor. The connectivity and economic impact will be nearly immeasurable.
It doesn’t take much of a visionary these days to imagine multiple forms of transportation coming together mid-continent after decades of planning, hoping, and praying. But it still requires everyone working together to make the dreams become reality.
Collaborations among thousands of engineers, scientists, design professionals, legislators, investors, contractors, federal, state and local leaders, et al, have brought us this far forward. Many have dreamed of the I-49 project being completed. Literally generations have talked about it. And now, another key part of it is becoming our present day reality.
The projected completion date for this section of I-49 is late 2028. Let’s all enjoy the process and be thankful we finally get to watch this monstrous creation being built. It’s the project of a lifetime (or two or three) in the middle of the United States of America. Let’s celebrate the imagination, creativity, human ingenuity, and persistence bringing this critical Infrastructure toward completion one segment at a time, and keep asking for more until Interstate 49 is finished.
Photos and editorial contributed by Lorie Robertson.
Updated 9/20/26
.
