Rogers road construction projects underway

Rogers drivers will have to find routes around work that begins today to widen South Bellview Road to four lanes.

The road will remain closed until about Dec. 31 from West Pleasant Drive to South 28th Place. The road project is one of nine the city is undertaking this year with funding from the 2011 bond election.

Rogers street projects

• Pinnacle Hills Parkway will be extended from Pauline Whitaker Parkway to Pleasant Grove Road. The project has started and will be completed this winter.

• The 1-mile stretch of Price Lane will be widened to three lanes from Eighth Street to Dixieland Road. Traffic lights also will be added at Price Lane and Dixieland Road. The project has started and will be completed this fall.

• Monte Ne Road will be widened to four lanes from Gum Street to New Hope Road. The project has started and will be completed this winter.

• Monte Ne Road will be moved and widened to four lanes between Oak and Gum streets. The project will start at the end of 2015 and be completed by the end of 2016.

• First Street will be widened to five lines between Olrich Street and Veterans Park. The project has started and will be completed during summer 2016.

• Perry Road will be widened to four lanes between Bellview Road and 21st Street. The project will start this fall and be completed during fall 2016.

• Southgate Road will be extended from Rainbow Road to Arkansas 112. The project will start in spring 2016 and end during fall 2016.

• Pleasant Grove Road will be realigned and widened to four lanes between Bellview Road and Champions Boulevard. The project has started and will end in fall 2016.

• Bellview Road will be widened to four lanes between Interstate 49 and Pleasant Grove Road. The project has started and will be completed during summer 2016.

• Bellview Road will be widened to four lanes between Pleasant Grove Road to the city limit. The project will start during fall 2015 and be completed during spring 2017.

Source: Staff report

"Those orange barrels mean progress is on its way," Mayor Greg Hines said. "It is overdue. The infrastructure has needed improvement for some time."

Voters approved the continuance of a 1 percent sales tax in September 2011 to pay off $145.9 million in bonds for capital improvement projects and to pay off previous bonds.

Bellview Elementary Principal Dan Cox said the construction on Bellview could cause some temporary confusion for parents getting to school.

"We anticipate having kids showing up later than usual," Cox said. "Those parents are so use to going out of their neighborhood and hitting Bellview. It is going to take a shift for everyone to reroute and go a different direction."

The expansion of Bellview Road to four lanes is expected to ease traffic, Cox said. He said the realignment of Pleasant Grove Road, which was completed this summer, already has helped. The project also was funded from the bond issue.

Cox said the realignment brings Pleasant Grove Road closer to the school and allows school officials to direct traffic to the back of the building away from Bellview Road.

"That has been working smoothly," Cox said. "Bellview is a highly used road. We had severe, severe congestion, especially in the morning."

Drivers had trouble exiting the school's front parking lot onto Bellview previously, Cox said. He said traffic in the school parking lot would come to a stop as people waited for an opportunity to make a left-hand turn.

"Bellview is a highly used road and it needs to be more than a two-lane road," Cox said.

Expansion of a portion of Bellview Road from Interstate 49 to Pleasant Grove Road is already underway, said Nathan Becknell, Rogers project engineer. He said that portion will be completed in summer 2016. The Bellview Road improvements that start Tuesday are planned for completion during spring 2017.

Weather has played a role in delaying some of the bond projects planned for this year, Becknell said.

The widening of Monte Ne Road from Gum Street to New Hope Road was expected to be completed this summer. Completion is now projected for this winter. The widening of First Street between Olrich Street and Veterans Park also is delayed. The project was supposed to be completed in spring 2016, but has been moved to summer 2016.

Hines said rain is the cause for the delay.

"We had a really, really wet spring," Hines said. "It stifled construction not just for road construction, but new residential construction. Everyone is taking advantage of the weather right now to get work done. They want to get done and paid, and we want the work done."

NW News on 09/01/2015

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