Arkansas’s First Buc-ee’s to Open in August near I-30 Traffic Exchange

By Wesley Brown, Arkansas Delta Informer Editor

BENTON, Ark. – July 17, 2026 – The national retail phenomenon known as Buc-ee’s will alight in central Arkansas exactly a month from today.

Currently, construction workers are laboring around the clock to put the finishing touches on a giant 74,000-square-foot convenience store in Saline County with a whopping 120 fueling pumps.

Located at the northwest corner of I-30 & SH 299, a new I-30 intersection exchange carved out of rural Saline River timberland, Buc-ee’s is poised to attract a new horde of followers and traffic to this central Arkansas suburban community.

According to company spokeswoman Crissy Gonzales, the new Benton location, which will be the first Buc-ee’s location in Arkansas, will open on Monday, Aug. 17, with a 10 a.m. ribbon-cutting.

“We are excited to welcome the community and celebrate the opening of this new location,” Gonzales told Arkansas Delta Informer.

In April, Buc-ee’s held its official grand opening in Benton, where local officials and dignitaries feted the mammoth travel center known for its cult-like followers and its buck-toothed beaver mascot, now advertised on highway billboards from Texarkana to Little Rock.

Since then, the Texas-based convenience store chain has held an official hiring event, during which many of the 200+ positions needed to run the 24-7 store operation were filled. Buc-ee’s Benton will offer starting pay well above minimum wage, full benefits, a 6% 401(k) match, and three weeks of paid vacation, company officials said.

Despite the recent hiring event with just a month to the highly anticipated opening of the Benton store, “individuals who are interested in employment opportunities are encouraged to visit our careers website and submit an application online,” said Gonzales.

Once open, Buc-ee’s in Benton will offer the convenience store giant’s signature treats, including Texas barbecue, homemade fudge, kolaches, Beaver Nuggets, jerky, and fresh pastries.

Visitors will also find thousands of other snack, meal, and drink options, as well as Buc-ee’s painstakingly clean restrooms, EV charging stations, and low fuel prices, which often drive down gas prices in any area where the convenience store giant operates.

“(Our) award-winning restrooms, cheap gas, quality products and excellent service …. have won the hearts, trust and business of millions for over 40 years,” the company boasts.

Founded in Lake Jackson, Texas, in 1982, Buc-ee’s now operates 55 stores nationwide, including 36 in Texas and 19 elsewhere. Since launching its multi-state expansion in 2019, Buc-ee’s has opened travel centers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri, Colorado, Mississippi, and Virginia. In the past two years, Buc-ee’s has also broken ground on its first locations in Ohio, Arkansas, Arizona, Kansas, and Louisiana. 

“We obviously picked Benton, the ‘Heart of Arkansas,’ to be the first Buc-ee’s in the Natural State,” Stan Beard, Buc-ee’s director of real estate and development, said at the time. “Folks on their way to or from Hot Springs or any number of beautiful destinations around Benton and Little Rock will stop in for our great Texas BBQ, the cleanest restrooms in the universe, and a pit stop beyond their wildest expectations.”

Bu-cee’s Beaver Backlash and Traffic Concerns

Bu-cee’s first Arkansas location is not without the usual hubbub and frequent NIMBY (Not-in-my-backyard) controversies and backlash that are now part and parcel of this cultural phenomenon.

As Buc-ee’s is undergoing an aggressive expansion across the South and nationally, including 10 announced grand openings since late 2024, the Pearland, Texas-based convenience store chain has faced NIMBY protests and lawsuits in North Carolina, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Ohio, Georgia, and Florida, according to media reports.

In Arkansas, where the pushback against the huge Arkansas travel center is mainly focused on the location of the company’s beaver den, some Saline locals are frustrated about the expected I-30 traffic tie-up at the convergence of the aptly named “Bu-cee’s Boulevard” and one of the state’s most heavily traveled corridors.

Shortly after the City of Benton Planning Commission approved the sale of prime real estate just off the Saline River, near the 114 exit on I-30, to CSMS Management LLC of Pearland, Texas, in May 2024, rumors of a planned Bu-cee’s location in Benton quickly circulated across central Arkansas.

Prior to that land sale and the traffic and engineering plan submitted by Bu-cee’s to the Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT) and the Army Corps of Engineers, Saline locals and Arkansas motorists had already spent nearly five years complaining about frequent travel tie-ups at a nearly 90-degree curve entering the Benton city limits.

After getting years of public input, ARDOT in May 2019 began construction on the I-30 widening project in Saline County, which was at the single-largest contract ever awarded by the Arkansas Highway Commission. Led by Johnson Brothers Corp. of Roanoke, Texas, the $187.3 million project was originally expected to widen 5.5 miles of I-30 from four to six lanes beginning just west of the interchange with U.S. Highway 70 to Sevier Street in Benton.

The initial plans included realigning the interchange and ramps at U.S. Highway 67, constructing a roundabout at South Street on the westbound I-30 frontage road, and constructing a bridge over the Saline River.

Originally slated to take only 3.5 years and be completed by the end of 2022, the state Highway Commission placed the project in default in February 2024 after months of construction delays, traffic jams, highway accidents, and tie-ups that frequently brought the state’s main interstate route to a standstill.

“This is unprecedented territory for us, and it’s not something we arrived at lightly,” former ARDOT Director Lorie Tudor said at the time. “This is in the best interest of those who are affected daily by this work zone.”

According to state highway officials, project manager Johnson Brothers added change orders to the original ARDOT contract “due to unforeseen field conditions,” pushing the estimated completion date to April 2023.

However, the decision to hold off on placing Johnson Brothers in default occurred during an ARDOT commission meeting on April 4, 2024, after the company proposed a different course of action under a new construction superintendent.

After terse negotiations and several state Highway Commission meetings to quell community anger and control project cost overruns, the Texas construction firm that is a subsidiary of publicly traded Southland Holdings Inc. in Grapevine, Texas, proposed new work schedules to get the Arkansas construction boondoggle back on track.

Among many concessions, Johnson Brothers offered to begin subcontracting some of its work to other firms, increasing its man-hours by 160% amid potential delay fines from ARDOT.  Still, due to other unforeseen issues, including soil erosion and solid rock beneath the soil, the highway commission and the project manager further delayed the project’s completion date to late 2024.

By early 2025, after nearly six years of delays, near-daily traffic tie-ups, and public scorn, construction workers finally removed the orange cones from I-30, at a cost of $202 million to Arkansas taxpayers, three years late and $15 million over the original budget.

The Saline County construction project is part of the Connecting Arkansas Program (CAP), one of the largest highway construction programs ArDOT has undertaken. In 2012, through a voter-approved constitutional amendment, the people of Arkansas approved a 10-year, half-cent sales tax to improve the state’s intermodal transportation system, including projects to widen and improve approximately 170 miles of highways and interstates.

Maps, photos and updates on the I-30 exchange near Bu-cee’s Boulevard, along with the other 30 projects that make up the $1.8 billion program, including the multi-million-dollar I-30 Crossing project in downtown Little Rock and the I-40 widening project between Fayetteville and Bentonville, are available here.

Benton’s traffic plan for the giant travel center includes a new traffic light after exiting I-30 and upon entering the store on Bu-cee’s Boulevard to improve access and manage the anticipated rush and overflow of high-volume traffic. City officials also say they are working with ARDOT to ensure the store can operate safely and efficiently once it opens.