SPRINGDALE — The Highway Department is proposing moving Old Wire Road north of Randall Wobbe Lane, running to the west of the current alignment then north along Jefferson Street, veering back to the east where the street ends.
Old Wire Road is also Arkansas 265. The proposal calls for the new Arkansas 265 to connect back to its original path north of Arkansas 264.
Terry Tucker, with the environmental division of the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, said there are utilities, including a 36-inch water main and several sewer lines, in the area of the original route proposed as well as more homes and a Cargill chicken processing plant that would have had its facilities heavily impacted.
“We didn’t want to go that way because of the cost of moving utilities and moving people,” Tucker said of the original proposed route.
The new route is expected to affect four residences rather than seven in the original route. The new route should also result in less noise to residential areas and less impact on floodplain areas, Tucker said. And, the cost is expected to be $16.8 million, down from an estimated $25.3 million.
One business, Williamson Boat Storage, will be taken out by the project because it sits where Old Wire Road will intersect with Arkansas 264, according to Blain Erskine, the owner.
More than 60 people showed up at Bayyari Elementary School to look at the plans, ask questions and comment on the proposal. Jim and Betty McGuire live just east of Old Wire.
“I am very, very interested in seeing this project completed as soon as possible. The traffic situation along Old Wire Road from Randall Wobbe to 264 is at absolute maximum capacity to handle the north/south traffic that’s using it, especially at rush hour,” Jim McGuire said. “Old Wire Road is dangerous with big trucks using it regularly.”
McGuire said widening Arkansas 264 to five lanes, currently underway, will dump even more traffic on the road. He also wants to see Old Wire punched through to the east side of Rogers as soon as possible to provide another north/south option for drivers.
Planning and environmental studies for the project began about 10 years ago and have included a series of public input sessions. The criteria used for designating the preferred alignment included cost effectiveness, overall impact, and public input, according to the highway department.
Regional planners have identified the project as a priority and dedicated a portion of the federal highway money the area receives for regionally significant projects toward getting the project done.
A traffic corridor to ease congestion on U.S. 71B and provide another north-south route east of the metro area has been on wish lists since at least 1973.
In the region’s long-term highway plan, the corridor is designated as a major artery. Traffic models have shown the road will get a lot of use.
There are three north/south corridors in the region: Interstate 49, U.S. 71B and Arkansas 265. Arkansas 112 has been studied as a potential fourth north-south corridor.
Arkansas 264 is being widened to five lanes from Thompson Street east to Arkansas 265 and is expected to be done by summer. Wagon Wheel Road, which is Arkansas 264 west of Thompson, is already five lanes to the Interstate.
Improvements to Arkansas 265 between Arkansas 264 and Pleasant Grove Road in Benton County are in the early stages. Crossland Heavy Construction submitted the low bid on the project in December at $15.4 million. Clearing of that right-of-way has begun.