Central Arkansas Water’s board of commissioners on Thursday agreed to spend close to $9 million on engineering design work for a new large-diameter water line.
The new 72-inch-diameter line will run from Lake Maumelle, one of two lakes that supply the Little Rock area with water, to the Jack H. Wilson Water Treatment Plant in west Little Rock.
The design work is expected to be funded using proceeds from water revenue bonds. The engineering firm Garver will perform the work after previously studying possible routes for the new line.
The amount of the design contract is approximately 6.4% of the estimated total construction cost of $139 million, commissioners were told Thursday.
As of now, two large-diameter lines run from Lake Maumelle to the Wilson plant. One is 72 inches in diameter and the other is 48 inches in diameter. Both are decades old, so utility officials want to build another line to add redundancy to the system.
Working with Garver, Central Arkansas Water officials recently selected one of four possible routes for the new line, which will be buried underground.
The selected route would run alongside the existing lines until close to the Little Maumelle River, then diverge to run parallel with some existing electric transmission cables, commissioners were told last month.
Construction is expected to begin 2029 and finish 2032.
During Thursday’s meeting, commissioners also voted to authorize a contract for repairs to the dam spillway at Lake Winona, the utility’s other source-water reservoir, for approximately $591,000.
Spillways allow for a controlled release of water to avoid overtopping a dam or levee. The Luckinbill Construction Co. of Edmond, Okla., was selected for the contract out of the two responsive bids that the utility received.
The spillway was constructed in 1936 along with the rest of the reservoir, said Elizabeth Heiles, a senior engineer with the utility.
The spillway has undergone just “minimal cosmetic repairs” since it was built, and a 2025 inspection showed some degradation of the concrete, she told commissioners.
“It still is primarily cosmetic,” she said of the planned repairs. “It is bedded on shale, so we’re not looking at structural deficiencies, which is great, so we don’t have concerns about that. But it is time to give this a little bit of love and attention.”
The work is expected to take around five months and include cleaning and resealing joints, removing deteriorated concrete and repairing areas with epoxy mortar, board documents said.
Also on Thursday, Andrew Pownall, a senior engineer with the utility, updated commissioners on the progress of a major overhaul of the Wilson water treatment plant.
Temporary equipment has been installed inside a new electrical building while officials await the permanent equipment, he said. A new chemical building is under construction.
Additionally, one of the plant’s basins has received new equipment and flocculation zones, Pownall said.
The construction manager at risk on the project is the Max Foote Construction Co. of Mandeville, La.
The work is expected to continue until 2030. Commissioners approved a maximum $230 million bond issue associated with the project last year.
Joseph Flaherty
Joseph Flaherty covers the city of Little Rock for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. A graduate of Middlebury College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, he has worked for the newspaper since 2020.
