FAYETTEVILLE — Drivers have been dodging orange barrels on Northwest Arkansas highways for several years and there’s no indication that’s going to change anytime soon, according to state highway officials.
“Just remember, orange barrels means it’s going to get better,” Dick Trammel, chairman of the Arkansas Highway Commission told Washington County Senior Democrats during a recent presentation.
Endless roads
Other transportation projects of regional interest include:
• A $22 million project that involves rehabilitating portions of the interstate along a 28-mile stretch from Interstate 40 at Alma to U.S. 62 in Fayetteville is underway. The work involves replacing some road panels and barrier walls that are crumbling because of an alkali reaction in the concrete mixture used when the section was originally built.
• An additional four miles of the Arkansas 265 corridor between Fayetteville and Rogers is under construction in Lowell at an estimated cost of $15 million. About 3.1 miles of the corridor in Fayetteville and Springdale have been completed at a cost of $14 million. Two more sections, one in Rogers and another in Springdale, are scheduled.
• Improvements to Arkansas 12 in Bentonville began in November 2014 and are expected to be complete later this year. The project is 2.2 miles long and is costing an estimated $9 million.
• Widening and improvements to 6.1 miles of U.S. 62 between Avoca and north Garfield have been completed at a cost of $23 million.
• Improvements to a one-mile portion of West Walnut Street between Dixieland Road and Eighth Street in Rogers are scheduled. The project is expected to cost between $5 million and $10 million.
• Improvements to turn Arkansas 112 into a major north/south corridor are included in the Highway Department’s 2016-20 draft Statewide Transportation Improvement Program. A feasibility study has been adopted and the project is estimated to cost $90 million to $140 million. Parts of the curvy, two-lane blacktop are expected to be widened, straightened and relocated.
• Improvements, including widening, are underway on a 1.4-mile section of Arka
The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department completed 203 projects covering 309.1 miles and costing some $471 million in Benton and Washington counties since 2005, said Chad Adams, district engineer. Right now, 25 projects covering 53 miles are under construction at an estimated cost of $294.6 million.
Going forward, 68 more projects covering 141.7 miles are scheduled between now and 2022, Adams said. The estimated cost of those projects is $578.2 million.
The lion’s share of the work is along the Interstate 49 corridor, mostly widening the highway to three lanes in each direction and improving interchanges, Adams said. Since 2005, 11 projects covering 7.4 miles and costing $100 million have been completed. Four projects on 13.6 miles of the interstate are under construction at an estimated cost of $109 million.
Ten more projects along I-49 are planned, covering 16 miles of interstate and costing an estimated $302 million, Adams said.
Two of those projects worth $66.4 million were recently let for bids. Highway officials have reviewed and approved the bids. Work on the two projects is expected to begin later this summer and last through early 2019.
The larger project will widen a 5.1-mile section between Arkansas 264 and New Hope Road from four lanes to six. The second will widen a 3.4-mile section between Southeast 14th Street and Central Avenue in Bentonville.
Money to pay for the construction is coming from interstate rehabilitation bonds, a half-cent sales tax, new federal highway money and state and local matches, according to Trammel. All the I-49 work is expected to be completed or well under way by 2020.
Arkansas voters in 2011 approved a bond program for interstate repair, the Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicles, or GARVEE Bonds. Voters in 2012 approved a 10-year, half-cent sales tax for new construction of highways. The sales tax raises about $230 million annually for the highway department’s $1.8 billion Connecting Arkansas Program.
“You (the voters) passed the half-cent sales taxes twice,” Trammel said. “If you hadn’t stepped up and passed that, you wouldn’t see any of this going on on I-49 today.”
Work around Fayetteville
One of the biggest projects remaining on I-49 is widening and reconfiguring the interchange where Arkansas 112 and the Fulbright Expressway converge with the interstate in northwest Fayetteville. The Highway Commission is accepting bids now and is expected to award the contract on Aug. 10.
The project will shift the south lanes of I-49 to the east so they’re parallel with the existing north lanes, but there will still be a big curve.
In addition to six lanes of interstate, three in each direction through the interchange, the project aims to eliminate kamikaze merging situations at either end of the interchange.
Motorists traveling west on the Fulbright Expressway who want to get off on Arkansas 112 to go to Sam’s Club or the auto park have to weave through south I-49 mainline traffic to get over into the right lane to exit. Traffic from Arkansas 112 heading to Fulbright has to enter the main lanes of I-49 north traffic before exiting. That weaving movement will be eliminated as part of the project.
Adding a third lane in each direction should also reduce rush hour backups on I-49 and improve north/south traffic flow, according to Chris Brown, Fayetteville city engineer.
The project is estimated to cost some $55 million. Construction is expected to begin in in early 2017 and could take up to four years to complete.
“Obviously traffic volumes are very high in that area. We have a lot of different weaving movements through the lanes going north and going south and this project will separate some of those movements,” said Tim Conklin, a senior planner with the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission. “So, as you use 112 and the Fulbright Expressway you’ll have an easier time accessing the business district of Fayetteville or if you’re going north to Springdale, Rogers or Bentonville.”
The project also will help the Arkansas 112 corridor by widening the Garland Avenue overpass so the road can be widened north to Van Asche. There will be room for a 14-foot-wide sidewalk with a 5-foot buffer eliminating the roadblock for pedestrians and bicyclists to cross I-49.
Widening the remaining two-lane portion of Garland Avenue/Arkansas 112 from Poplar Street to Van Asche Drive is scheduled for 2018. The project would widen 1.6 miles of the road on either side of I-49 at an estimated cost of $6.4 million.
Garland has been widened to four lanes from Maple Street, on the University of Arkansas campus, to Agri Park. Van Asche connects with Arkansas 112 just north of I-49 near Restaurant on the Corner.
The move will provide more access to the retail area around the Northwest Arkansas Mall and planned residential and commercial development along Van Asche.
The Bypasses
Work is continuing on the 14-mile Bella Vista Bypass even though Missouri highway officials say they don’t have the money needed for their 2.5-mile section to link up with the new road at the state line, as has long been the plan.
Adams said 5.4 miles of the bypass have been completed at a cost of $34 million. Another 6.4 miles is under construction at an estimated cost of $53 million. The remaining 5.4 miles is scheduled and is expected to cost another $69 million.
A two-mile, two-lane section between Arkansas 72 North and Benton County 34 near Hiwasse opened last year. A section between Arkansas 72 South and Arkansas 72 North was finished in 2014.
Work is ongoing from I-49 in north Bentonville westward. A large roundabout and other interchange improvements are planned at least temporarily in north Bentonville as part of the project.
The road will be part of I-49 when completed.
Work on the U.S. 412 Northern Bypass around Springdale between Arkansas 112 and I-49 started in April 2015 and is expected to be completed in 2019. The project is the most expensive job in highway department history at just over $100 million.
The bypass is intended to relieve congestion through Springdale on Sunset Boulevard, South Thompson Street and Robinson Avenue, the city’s main east-west route, which is designated U.S. 412. Traffic studies say about 25,000 vehicles a day travel the route, according to highway officials.
The four-mile section will provide a jumping off point for a planned limited access highway to the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport.
The new road will eventually curve back south and connect to U.S. 412 on the west side of Springdale near Tontitown.
The eastern half of the bypass should eventually connect to U.S. 412 near Sonora, but that part of the project currently has no funding.