Why Central Avenue's Potholes Aren't the City's Problem to Fix

Drive Central Avenue this month and the pavement tells two different stories depending on which block you're on. South past Oaklawn, crews have been laying fresh black asphalt over cracked lanes that have needed it for years. A few blocks in either direction, the surface is still the same patchwork it's been since the last time anyone paid attention to it. If you've wondered why the city seems to be ignoring its own main street while quietly repaving side roads all over town, the answer isn't neglect. It's jurisdiction. Central Avenue is Highway 7, and Highway 7 belongs to the state.

That single fact explains almost everything confusing about this corridor's maintenance schedule this year, and it's the kind of detail that never makes it into a typical neighborhood roundup because it sounds like paperwork. It isn't. It's the reason one project on Central Avenue has a construction crew and no announced finish date, while a much quieter project a few blocks away already opened its doors months ago with almost no fanfare at all.

One Street, Two Different Governments

The Central District isn't the postcard stretch of Bathhouse Row. That half-mile of Central Avenue between Park Avenue and roughly 702 Central is its own separately designated historic district, the one with the Spanish Revival facades and the National Register listing. The Central District that residents and business owners actually live and work in runs well beyond that, the longer commercial spine that carries Highway 7 traffic north to south through the medical offices, strip retail, and daily-errand businesses that make this stretch the functional center of town rather than the tourist-brochure version of it.

That distinction matters because it explains a jurisdictional split that trips up a lot of longtime residents. Streets inside city limits are the city's responsibility to pave, budget, and schedule. Highway 7, which is what Central Avenue technically is for its full length through town, belongs to the Arkansas Department of Transportation. The city can repave every side street in the Central District and never touch Central Avenue itself, because it isn't the city's road to touch.

The City's Own List Proves the Point

You don't have to take that on faith. The city's 2026 paving list, approved by the Hot Springs Board of Directors and covering 63 streets, runs to 15.33 miles of new asphalt this year, adding to the 83.35 miles the city has paved since 2020. That entire program is funded by the countywide 0.625% sales tax that voters reauthorized in a February 2022 special election, the same funding stream that pushed the city's annual paving pace from roughly 3 to 5 miles a year before the tax to well over 10 miles a year since.

Central Avenue isn't on that list. Neither is Albert Pike Road, for the same reason. When a water main under Albert Pike ruptured during a winter storm earlier this year and crews had to cut into the pavement to fix it, the city was explicit about why that street wasn't part of its own repaving program: it's part of ArDOT's maintenance inventory, not the city's. Central Avenue sits in that same category. The city's paving crews and budget simply don't apply to it, no matter how central the street is to daily life here.

ArDOT's Turn on the Corridor

That's where the current construction fits in. In late July, the Arkansas Department of Transportation confirmed it would begin resurfacing almost six miles of Central Avenue, with work already visible along the stretch that passes Oaklawn. Because this is a state project running on ArDOT's own contracting and funding timeline rather than the city's annual paving cycle, there isn't a published completion date yet the way there would be for a city street on this year's list. If you commute this corridor daily, the practical takeaway is to expect the current pace of lane shifts and uneven surfaces to continue for a while longer rather than assume it wraps up on a set city schedule, because it was never on one.

It's a genuinely overdue fix. Anyone who's driven this stretch regularly has felt the difference between the newly resurfaced sections and the ones still waiting their turn, and knowing that the timeline runs through Little Rock rather than City Hall at least explains why patience is the only real strategy here.

The Bigger Fix Already Opened Its Doors

While the asphalt story is still unfolding, the more consequential change to this corridor already happened, and it had nothing to do with pavement.

Earlier this year, Levi Hospital, the longtime local provider of inpatient behavioral health services, transitioned to a community health foundation, ending its role in that kind of care locally. In response, National Park Medical Center announced plans to build a new 16-bed adult behavioral health unit inside its own facility, a $2.9 million project supported in part by a donation from the Levi Community Foundation. Construction began in early 2026, and by June the hospital held its ribbon cutting and opened phase one to patients, with 12 of the planned 16 beds available at launch.

That's a real capability that exists on this corridor now that didn't exist a year ago, built specifically to fill a gap left by another institution's departure. It's the kind of infrastructure change that doesn't generate detour signs or orange barrels, so it's easy to miss if you're only paying attention to what's visibly under construction. But for a district that includes a concentration of medical facilities among its defining features, a new inpatient behavioral health unit opening its doors is arguably the more significant addition to what this stretch of Central Avenue can offer its community this year.

What This Actually Means If You're Driving This Corridor Daily

Put the two together and the picture is clearer than either fact is on its own. The visible disruption, the resurfacing project near Oaklawn, is a state job running on a state timeline with no announced end date yet. The quieter, more permanent change, a new behavioral health unit with real bed capacity, already happened and is already serving patients. One is asphalt. The other is capacity. Neither is on the city's radar in the way you'd expect, because neither one is the city's project to run.

If you live or work along this stretch, that split is worth carrying around simply because it changes what you should expect and from whom. Calling the city about pothole conditions on Central Avenue itself won't get you very far, because it genuinely isn't theirs to fix. Calling ArDOT, or checking their project updates, is the more useful move if you want to know when the resurfacing near Oaklawn is likely to wrap. And if you or someone you know has needed inpatient behavioral health care in Garland County this year, it's worth knowing that option now exists a few blocks off Central Avenue in a way it didn't twelve months ago.

That's the kind of detail that doesn't show up in a drive-by description of what's new in the neighborhood. It shows up when you ask who's actually responsible for what you're looking at.

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