Page 2 - Plainview Gate News Today

Tucked between White Hall and the Arkansas River in the Jefferson County piney woods, one of the nations most under-the-radar military installations is due to receive some love. Infrastructure love. Which is the only kind of love military installations require.

In mid-December, Arkansas Sens. Tom Cotton and John Boozman voted yes on an $858 billion federal defense spending bill that will fund several projects around Arkansas, including $1.8 million for one at the Pine Bluff Arsenal.

If the Army shuttered its Pine Bluff Arsenal tomorrow, nearly 1,000 people would be out of relatively high-paying jobs, government spending would dry up and the annual economic loss to the vicinity would be about $158 million.

It will cost an estimated $9.8 million to upgrade Arkansas Highway 256 from Interstate 530 to the Pine Bluff Arsenals Plainview Gate, with the goal of turning the two-lane country road into one that can handle daily traffic from employee vehicles and heavy commercial and military trucks, according to officials.

Anticipating a city's growth often boils down to officials' watching trends and making a best guess. Harder still is predicting the additional demands on an area's roads that development brings.

With the award of a $500,000 Compatible Use Implementation contract to the Matrix Design Group in July, White Hall is one step closer to improvements on Hoadley Road.