Opening Note
Last issue was about rules: the strictest data-center ordinance in the state. This one is about concrete.
On Friday, September 4, ARDOT opened two projects in Northwest Arkansas worth about $400 million, including a stretch of road that is now officially Interstate 42. If you've been routing around construction on Highway 112, Highway 412, or out toward XNA, that detour is over, and there's a lot more of this corridor still to be built.
We've also got a free home show 18 days out, a five-minute fire-prevention check most homeowners have never heard of, and a licensing story that explains why a properly trained HVAC tech isn't interchangeable with whoever's cheapest on Thumbtack.
Free Guides & Local Events
MARK IT: FREE PASSES TO THE ARKANSAS HOME SHOW, SEPT. 26-27
The Arkansas Home Show returns to the Rogers Convention Center (3303 S Pinnacle Hills Pkwy) Saturday, Sept. 26, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday, Sept. 27, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Home improvement, landscaping, and design exhibitors under one roof. Passes are free in advance at homeshowsar.com, or $10 at the door. Parking is free.
The Weekly Fix
The five-minute check that prevents the fire nobody thinks about: your dryer vent
Clogged dryer vents cause thousands of house fires every year, and it's one of the few fire risks in an average home that takes almost no time to check.
What to do (safe for any homeowner, no tools beyond your hands):
Unplug the dryer before you do anything else.
Pull the dryer out far enough to see the vent hose (usually 4-inch flexible or rigid duct) connecting it to the wall.
Check for lint buildup at both ends of the hose and feel for airflow restriction. A hose that's crushed, kinked, or packed with lint is doing its job badly.
Go outside and check the exterior vent hood. The flap should open when the dryer runs and close when it's off. Lint caked around the hood, or a flap that won't open, means the line is at least partly blocked.
Clean what you can reach yourself: the lint trap after every load, not just when it looks full, and any lint visible at the accessible ends of the hose. A long flexible brush kit, sold at any hardware store, reaches further than your hand.
This is a call to a professional, not a weekend project: if the vent run is long, goes through an attic or crawlspace, or you can't get meaningful airflow after cleaning what you can reach, a dryer vent cleaning service has the equipment to clear the full run. This is not an electrical or gas job for most setups, but if your dryer is gas-fired, don't disconnect anything beyond unplugging it. Leave gas-line work to a licensed technician.
How often: once a year for most households. Twice a year if you dry a lot of laundry, have pets that shed, or have a long or bent vent run.
General safety guidance, not a claim about any specific product, brand, or local service provider's pricing or availability.
Your NWA Checklist
Grab free passes to the Arkansas Home Show (Sept. 26-27, Rogers Convention Center) at homeshowsar.com before you're stuck paying $10 at the door.
Do the five-minute dryer vent check above, especially before the humid-to-dry seasonal swing makes lint drier and more flammable.
Driving Highway 112, 412, or out to XNA? Recheck your route. Two new stretches opened September 4 and the old detours are gone.
Hiring an HVAC tech this fall? Ask if their license and continuing-education hours are current. See Around the Trades for what that actually requires, and use our free license lookup tool below to check for yourself in under two minutes.
Still budgeting around Arkansas's Home Energy Rebates program? Stop. The state energy office's own page still says the program "is not available in Arkansas," a year after it was supposed to launch. Plan your project without it.
Trade Update
Interstate 42 is on the map, and the bypass is only half built
ARDOT opened two Northwest Arkansas projects on Friday, September 4.
The first is Arkansas Highway 642, a four-mile connector costing $127.67 million, running from I-42 down to Arkansas Highway 264 at XNA's south entrance. The second is Phase 2 of the Springdale Northern Bypass, seven miles, $180.78 million, running from Arkansas Highway 112 to Highway 412 in western Tontitown. That stretch now carries the Interstate 42 designation, a new interstate Congress approved in late 2021 for a roughly 190-mile corridor following U.S. Highway 412, eventually connecting I-49 and Springdale to I-35 north of Oklahoma City.
Combined construction value on the two jobs is $308.46 million. ARDOT put total investment at $400 million. "It's a big deal for us," ARDOT Director Jared Wiley said at the opening. "I'm especially proud that we're adding a new interstate highway to our map today."
What contractors should be watching: the bypass isn't finished. Phase 3 (Highway 612) is estimated at $200 to $250 million with no confirmed bid date. Phase 4 is estimated at $250 to $300 million, also unscheduled. Between them, that's roughly $450 to $550 million of work not yet let, on a corridor that just became an interstate.
What homeowners should be watching: land along a brand-new interstate doesn't stay priced like pasture. If you own, are buying, or are pricing site work anywhere along the 112 and 412 corridor through Tontitown and western Springdale, the ground under that decision moved on Friday.
The wider market, briefly: the Arvest Bank Skyline Report for H1 2026, via the UA Center for Business and Economic Research, shows the mix shifting under the surface of NWA real estate. Commercial building permits fell to $144.5 million, down 50.2%, while multifamily permits ran to 25 projects worth $827.1 million, and multifamily vacancy roughly doubled, to 7.3% from 3.7%. Whichever side of that split you work, it's worth knowing before you decide what to chase next year.
Figures are ARDOT's as stated at the September 4 opening. Phase 3 and 4 estimates are preliminary with no bid date announced for either. Skyline Report figures are as reported by Talk Business & Politics from the underlying Arvest/UA CBER study.
Around the Trades
Your CEU hours might be teaching the wrong code year
A quick one for licensed HVAC techs, and a useful thing for homeowners to know when hiring one.
Arkansas requires four hours of continuing education a year to renew an HVAC/R license, and two of those four hours must specifically cover the mechanical code. Miss the deadline, and there's a 90-day grace period. Miss that too, and the rule doesn't call for a fine. It calls for retaking the licensing exam.
Here's the part worth knowing: Arkansas has adopted the 2021 International Mechanical Code, not the newer 2024 edition, by Board rule effective June 2022. But the state's own approved CEU course list includes online courses built around "IMC 2024" content. Those may be fine for your two non-code hours. If you're buying a cheap online bundle in December to clear the requirement, though, know which code year you're actually being taught, since Arkansas inspections still run on 2021.
For homeowners: this is exactly what our free contractor-license lookup tool is for. A licensed, current tech is trained against the code your inspector actually enforces. Two minutes, no login: nwatrades.com/p/check-any-arkansas-contractor-s-license-in-two-minutes.
One Benton County bid is open. ARDOT Job CB0401, N. Flint Creek structure and approaches, is on the September 23, 2026 letting, reconfirmed directly against ARDOT's advertised-projects page this week. It's the only Benton County job currently advertised. Nothing is posted for Washington, Madison, or Carroll counties right now. The next listed letting after that is November 4.
Quick Links
Arkansas Home Show, free advance passes: homeshowsar.com
Verify any Arkansas contractor's license, free: nwatrades.com/p/check-any-arkansas-contractor-s-license-in-two-minutes
ARDOT currently advertised projects and letting dates: ardot.gov
Arkansas approved HVAC CEU course list (the state's own, current version): labor.arkansas.gov, HVAC/R section
Arkansas Workforce Challenge Scholarship (standing resource, covered as news in Issue No. 4): sams.adhe.edu
Closing
If you bid Springdale Northern Bypass work, or you're pricing Phase 3, we'd like to know what you're seeing on the estimating side. Reply and tell us.
If someone forwarded you this, subscribe free at nwatrades.com. It always will be.
Know about a counter day, a free workshop, a training deadline, or a new business we should be watching? Just reply to this email.
Levi Pittenger
Publisher, The NWA Trade Guide