The intersection of South University Avenue and Asher Avenue/Colonel Glenn Road, once the anchor of a major retail corridor that since has fallen on hard times, is about to get a $1.2 million face-lift.
University south of the intersection is a city street. Asher and University north of the intersection are part of U.S. 70, and Colonel Glenn, which is part of Arkansas 5, are owned and maintained by the state.
Little Rock and the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department are each contributing $600,000 to the project, which is part of a grander vision for a section of the corridor south from the intersection to West 28th Street that has been pushed by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The school's campus borders the section.
The project has the backing of Frank Scott Jr. of Little Rock, who is completing his term on the Arkansas Highway Commission in January.
"It's going to help southwest Little Rock as well as create a better entryway into UALR," he said. "It will improve access but also improve community development."
Two applications for federal money to finance the broader project were unsuccessful. Joni Lee, chief government affairs director for UALR, said she prefers not to call the intersection improvement project Plan B. "It's the first phase," she said.
The university's initial idea was to transform the intersection into a gateway to the university and the surrounding area, called the University District.
At one time, the university even envisioned transforming the section into a large roundabout, but engineering studies deemed that design unworkable.
The Highway Department has focused on improving the intersection for an even longer time than the university has. In a statewide study, it was identified as a candidate to be turned into a continuous-flow intersection, which is a design that would remove left-hand turns against traffic by allowing motorists to cross before they reach the intersection.
A similar continuous-flow interchange is planned for the Interstate 430/Cantrell Road interchange, also in Little Rock.
But Jessie Jones, an official with the Highway Department, said the plan is no longer being considered because it isn't conducive to the pedestrian traffic the university wants to promote in the district.
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The university wanted to make the corridor between 28th Street and Asher Avenue/Colonel Glenn Road safer for not just the 35,000 motorists who use it daily but what is hoped to be a growing number of pedestrians, cyclists and transit riders, including the 13,000 students, staff and faculty members at the university.
The application for the federal grant said the corridor doesn't "effectively serve any of these users" and argues that it's a "challenging environmental for all."
The redesign is based on the idea that University Avenue isn't safe enough for the students, faculty, staff members and visitors who cross it every day.
Before the first application for the federal grant, Joel Anderson, UALR chancellor at the time, said University Avenue south from 28th Street was little more than "a speedway that was built in 1957 and has had relatively little done to it since then."
He also called it "unsafe" and an "eyesore," which combines to depress "economic activity in the area."
The grant application requested $9.5 million in federal funds and says it will get $5 million in local matching dollars. The city has committed $1.5 million of that match, and the Highway and Transportation Department has allotted $600,000 for the project.
Work on the proposal -- called the University Avenue Complete Streets Corridor Revitalization Project -- began four years ago.
It called for reducing the roadway from five lanes to four and adding a landscaped median, sidewalks, raised pedestrian crossings, bicycle lanes and improved bus accommodations. The east and west approaches at the Asher Avenue intersection would be reshaped to improve vehicle operation and pedestrian safety there.
The latest plan focuses solely on the University/Asher/Colonel Glenn intersection. The north-south traffic is more than 35,000 daily at the intersection while the east-west traffic reaches 36,000 daily.
"We have a tremendous interest in improving traffic flow and safety at that location," Jones said. "Three out of the four legs is a state highway."
But she and others say improvements for vehicular traffic must be balanced by the needs of pedestrian traffic. How that will be accomplished, though, won't be known until more studies are done.
"We don't know what it's going to look like," said Lee. "We hope the intersection will be much safer for pedestrians and cyclists as well as vehicles."
She also believes improving the intersection will help not only the university but partners on the other intersections, including a retail shopping center on the southeast corner and the Mosaic Church on the southwest corner.
"We want to see if we can make it a better place for everybody," Lee said.
The proposal has the backing of Metroplan, the long-range transportation planning agency for the region, as well as the Highway Commission. It is on the agenda for the meeting Tuesday of the Little Rock Board of Directors.
Little Rock City Manager Bruce Moore recently said the city "agrees with the need for this project" and said it is "apparent that reconstruction of the arterial intersection in this area will greatly improve safety and congestion."
The Highway Department has scheduled construction to begin in 2019.
Metro on 12/05/2016