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Tucked between White Hall and the Arkansas River in the Jefferson County piney woods, one of the nation's 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 Arsenal's 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.