By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — The idea seemed “really cool” to one lawmaker: Build a tunnel, or a combination tunnel and bridge, connecting the state Capitol to new office and meeting space for legislators in the Big MAC building 160 feet to the west.
Other lawmakers appeared supportive, but no action was taken Monday by a legislative panel briefed on a project that would carry an estimated price tag of $2.8 million to $3.5 million.
The idea would expand plans for use of the fifth-floor space the State Library currently occupies in the Multi-Agency Complex — popularly known as Big MAC — on the mall across from the west entrance of the Capitol.
Plans are for the space to be refurbished into a mix of state offices, legislative offices and two large meeting rooms, available for lawmakers, once the State Library moves into new quarters in the redeveloped old Dillard’s building on Capital Avenue in December.
The refurbishing project will cost an estimated $6.5 million, State Building Authority Director Anne Laidlaw said Monday before the Joint Committee on Legislative Facilities.
The agency pursued the idea of a tunnel or covered bridge from the Capitol to Big MAC because many state employees and lawmakers would be walking to and from the new office space during all types of weather and would need protection from the elements, Laidlaw told the panel.
“It would be really cool to do that,” said Rep. Gregg Reep, D-Warren. “I hope we can work something out.”
Laidlaw said the first priority is to get the State Library moved in December. If all goes well, work would then begin on refurbishing the library offices, she said, adding the renovation would take about a year.
She said she did not know when the tunnel project would begin, nor did she know of a source of funding.
“It’s just been researched at this point,” fulfilling a request from the Legislative Council’s executive committee, she said in an interview after the meeting.
Along with the library, the Dillard’s building also will house the state Department of Economic Development, Arkansas Development Finance Authority, the Energy Office of the Department of Economic Development and the state Science and Technology Authority.
The building services agency exercised an option in June to purchase the old Dillard’s building for $18.5 million construction work to completely redevelop the property into an energy-efficient facility certified by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.
On Monday, Rep. Eddie Cooper, D-Melbourne, and Sen. Steve Faris, D-Malvern, both spoke of the crowded office space for elected officials and state employees alike in the Capitol.
“This is an opportunity at a very reasonable price to solve a problem that’s been going on for 40-something years,” Cooper said.
Faris compared finding suitable office space for employees to a “shell game.”
He assured the panel that state constitutional officers would continue to have their offices in the Capitol and that the joint committee would decide on whether to move forward with the tunnel project.
