Most of Trumann's Highway 69 Widening Is Already Done. The Pavement Comes Last.

Drive Highway 69 from the I-555 interchange south toward Highway 463 this week and it looks the way it has for years. It's still two lanes. The ditches still run deep. The same right turn into McDonald's still backs up the car behind you. In the parking lots and front yards along the way, the only hint of change is a crew digging for water and sewer lines.

On paper, the road has already changed. The Arkansas Department of Transportation owns new strips of land on both sides of the highway. The engineering is close to finished. Almost every utility that had to move has moved or is moving now. Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT) Job 100615 has worked through two decades of steps that nobody driving the road could see. Once the last utility work wraps up, the next step is ARDOT putting the job out for bid.

A Road Project That Started in 2004

ARDOT's own project record says the Trumann widening was programmed on November 17, 2004, and first showed up in the state's 2016–2020 transportation improvement plan. The official limits run 1.68 miles along Highway 69, from I-555 to Highway 463. Local reporting this fall describes the same stretch as running from Commerce Drive to Highway 463.

Here are the milestones, taken from ARDOT's July 2026 staff minutes and earlier public notices:

That 2019 open house is where most people last heard the details in person. ARDOT ran it from 4 to 7 p.m. with no formal presentation, just exhibits, staff answering questions and comment forms. KAIT reported at the time that the tentative start was November 2021. That date came and went. Since then, ARDOT has acquired the land, received final plans and started moving utilities, and each of those steps had to be done before the next could start.

Ninety-Eight Pieces of Front Yard

The longest stretch of that work was land. ARDOT's staff minutes count 98 tracts along the corridor. All 98 were appraised. Owners accepted 92 purchase options, one owner donated land, and six tracts went through condemnation, with a possession date of April 2, 2024. The same record shows two business relocations and one personal-property relocation already moved.

On the ground, those tracts are slices off the edge of property people already use every day. KAIT described the right-of-way strips as "biting chunks out of front yards, driveways and commercial parking lots" on both sides of the highway. A lot of that land still looks like part of the yard it came from, because nothing has been built on it yet.

Trumann Animal Clinic shows what that means for one business. Owner and veterinarian Dr. Norette Underwood told KAIT the new highway boundary will sit less than 10 feet from her entrance. She raised safety concerns about clients bringing leashed pets in from an entrance that close to traffic. NorthArkNow's account from the same week also covered parking and access along the new boundary.

The Last Utilities to Move

Once ARDOT acquired the land, everything sitting on it had to come off before paving could start. Electric, gas and fiber-optic companies had largely finished their relocations by mid-September. That left the city's water and sewer lines as the final phase. ARDOT's utility notes list each company on the corridor. Entergy and Trumann Water's adjustments are complete. Work orders are issued for Brightspeed, Craighead Electric, Ritter, Summit and Trumann Water & Sewer. AT&T and Energy Transfer needed no adjustment.

Mayor Jay Paul Woods set this phase up in his State of the City address last March. The Wynne Progress quoted him saying the city's water and sewer relocations "have been bid and approved" and that construction on them would begin later in the year. Crews started digging in September. Woods told KAIT the water and sewer move costs about $1 million, with ARDOT covering roughly 87% and the city paying the rest. That makes Trumann's share somewhere around $130,000 to get its pipes out of the way of a $6.0 million state road job.

Why the Start Date Moves When the Work Doesn't

The confusing part for anyone following along is the year printed beside the project. ARDOT's current 2025–2028 transportation improvement plan still lists Job 100615 in federal fiscal year 2025. It estimates construction at $6.0 million, with $4.8 million in federal STBGP funds and $1.2 million in state money, for "Three-lane curb and gutter." The draft 2027–2030 plan keeps the same length and the same $6.0 million cost, and moves the job to federal fiscal year 2027. ARDOT released that draft on June 26, 2026, and took public comment through July 28. ARDOT still labels it a draft.

The money stayed the same and the year moved. That fits the rest of the record. The environmental clearance is approved, the land is acquired and the utility work is in its last phase, and those steps had to happen in order before a contractor could bid. The next public step is a letting, where ARDOT advertises the job and takes bids. As of mid-October, Job 100615 is not on ARDOT's list of currently advertised projects.

The city can't set that date. Woods said Trumann has no control over when ARDOT starts, and that he hopes construction begins next year. He put the city's position plainly:

"We're just going to keep talking to ARDOT and basically begging them to get the job let out and get it bid out and started because obviously we need it done."

He said that to KAIT in September. The Wynne Progress reported the same week that Woods called the project something the city has talked about for at least a decade. So 2027 is the city's hope and the draft plan's target. ARDOT has not scheduled it.

What the Finished Road Changes

The finished road will make a few daily trips easier. The design calls for three lanes, with a center turn lane, curb and gutter, an asphalt surface and sidewalks on both sides. ARDOT's record puts traffic on the corridor at 3,400 to 8,600 vehicles a day. That's a lot of cars to funnel into one lane each way when somebody up ahead is waiting to turn left.

The center lane fixes that. Back in 2022, then-Mayor Barbara Lewallen told KAIT about the two-lane road's deep ditches, its crash history and its trouble in winter weather. ARDOT engineer Brad Smithee said a left-turn lane would ease congestion. Curb and gutter take the place of those open ditches.

The sidewalks are the part Woods comes back to most. "The sidewalks themselves are going to be a big shot in the arm for us, for safety, for our walkers," he told KAIT. He pointed out that people walk along this stretch to jobs at McDonald's, Burger King and Walmart. The 2019 project drawing shows the other stops a sidewalk would connect: KFC/Taco Bell, Citgo, Pay-Less Market, Car-Mart, Trumann Animal Clinic, Pointe Inn, Plaza Farm Supply and Flash Market.

To see how the new edge of the road lines up with a particular driveway or storefront, the full drawing from that 2019 meeting is still posted. The project roll plot and project map are on ARDOT's Job 100615 meeting page, along with the original flyer. The plans have been revised since then, but the drawing still shows the corridor property by property, the way ARDOT first presented it.

If you own a home on or near Highway 69 and want to talk through how the coming construction fits into your plans for the next few years, I'm glad to sit down with you and look at your property and its frontage together. Kay L Doss is here to help. Schedule a free consultation, and we'll go over what's happening on your stretch of the road.