Photo: Harrison Daily Times
The new Arkansas Welcome Center north of Harrison near Bear Creek Springs has been under construction for almost two years now, but should be open this week, almost a year after the original fixed completion date.
The Harrison Daily Times reports Arkansas Department of Transportation engineer Stacy Burge said the doors should be open to the public by Thursday morning.
Dayco Construction of Damascus was the low bidder at $2.2 million, about 60 percent of the highest bid of $3.8 million from Flynco, Inc. of Little Rock.
ArDOT officials say the work order was issued for the project March 11th, 2016. The original fixed completion date in the contract was Sept. 29th, 2017.
ArDOT District 9 resident engineer Steve Lawrence says Dayco experienced some issues relating to building material certification requirements of the contract, and Dayco had never been contracted to build an ArDOT facility prior to the Harrison center.
Danny Straessle, ArDOT public information officer, says staff will be moving in this week and the center will be open.
However, the contractor has a punch list of items that must be complete to make sure all the kinks are worked out before a grand opening.
Straessle says the grand opening could be in November, although its not unusual for a grand opening to be scheduled well after the center opens the Little River Welcome Center in Texarkana had been open for two months before the grand opening.
In addition, there are schedules to coordinate in order to get all officials on scene for the event.
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