Work on Zion Road in Fayetteville hits milestone, more work ahead

Road work continues Wednesday on Zion Rd. in Fayetteville. Construction on the project began in November 2020. Workers have taken on segments with the goal to improve the street from Vantage Drive to Crossover Road. Visit nwaonline.com/220703Daily/ for daily galleries.
(NWA Democrat-Gazette/J.T. Wampler)
Road work continues Wednesday on Zion Rd. in Fayetteville. Construction on the project began in November 2020. Workers have taken on segments with the goal to improve the street from Vantage Drive to Crossover Road. Visit nwaonline.com/220703Daily/ for daily galleries. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/J.T. Wampler)

FAYETTEVILLE -- Drivers can again travel a section of road on the northeast side of town that had been closed for more than a year.

However, there's more to be done.

The city Friday opened a section of Zion Road from Vantage Drive east to Old Missouri Road. The section closed in May 2021 as crews worked on a number of improvements.

The entire project covers Zion Road from Vantage Drive east to Crossover Road and is several months behind schedule. Construction began in November 2020. The entire project originally was to wrap in February.

Crews with Tri Star Contractors in Siloam Springs have finishing touches left on a small roundabout at the intersection of Zion and Old Missouri roads and a short section of gravel road just to its west. Work will start soon on the other half of the project from Old Missouri Road to Crossover Road.

Public Works Director Chris Brown estimated the remaining work could take two to three months, meaning the entire project is on track to run about six or seven months behind.

Material and labor shortages associated with the covid-19 pandemic hamstrung the project, Brown said. For instance, concrete companies nationally are rationing supplies because there aren't enough drivers available to haul the materials. The contractor also has struggled with having enough employees to do the work, he said.

Weather, numerous design changes because of conflicts with existing utilities and difficulty with utility relocation also contributed to the lagging schedule, Brown said. Contingencies built into the contract with Tri Star allowed city staff to administratively approve extensions to the schedule if delays were deemed out of the contractor's control, he said.

The reasons for the delays have been justified, Brown said. City administrators have extended the contract schedule three times, with a fourth extension pending, he said.

The city retains the option to seek liquidated damages if a contractor goes on too long for reasons within its control, Brown said. Liquidated damages are a standard rate of $750 per day past a deadline the city can charge to a contractor. The process allows the city to recoup some of the cost it bears on a delayed project, he said.

The city could seek damages for the Zion project, but officials just want the contractor to finish the work, he said. City officials are happy with the work the contractor has done so far, Brown said.

"You can always go back and think about how things could have gone differently," he said. "But I think it's a situation where, at this point, they really are doing everything they can to get done as quickly as they can."

Once finished, Zion will have three lanes, including one lane in each direction east and west and a turning lane, with a mini roundabout at the intersection with Old Missouri Road. The road east of Old Missouri has been widened from about 20 feet to 30 feet, with ditches replaced with a trail to the north and a sidewalk to the south. The trail and sidewalk will run the length of Zion Road between Vantage Drive and Crossover Road.

A new water main also was installed in April to replace a main installed in the 1970s running the length of Zion Road. Also in April, a new sewer main was installed beneath Zion from Cape Dutch Avenue just west of the intersection with Old Missouri Road east to Taliesin Lane.

City crews still need to install about 400 additional linear feet of sewer main from Taliesin Lane to Crossover Road. The installation will require digging about 20 feet into the ground. Once the main is installed, the rest of the work should go quickly, Brown said. Work for the eastern portion of the Zion Road project mostly will involve overlay and striping because the street is already 30 feet wide, he said.

The project so far has stayed within budget, Brown said. The budget for the street work is $4.5 million using money from a transportation bond issue voters approved in 2019. The budget for the water and sewer work is $2.5 million using money from the city's capital fund for projects.

Brown said the wait will be worth it.

"We certainly understand this has been a very disruptive and long project," he said. "We're talking about building infrastructure that's going to be here for 50 or 100 years from now. The benefits will last a lot longer than the impacts have been."

  photo  Road work continues Wednesday on Zion Rd. in Fayetteville. Construction on the project began in November 2020. Workers have taken on segments with the goal to improve the street from Vantage Drive to Crossover Road. Visit nwaonline.com/220703Daily/ for daily galleries. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/J.T. Wampler)
 
 
  photo  Road work continues Wednesday on Zion Rd. in Fayetteville. Construction on the project began in November 2020. Workers have taken on segments with the goal to improve the street from Vantage Drive to Crossover Road. Visit nwaonline.com/220703Daily/ for daily galleries. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/J.T. Wampler)
 
 
  photo  Road work continues Wednesday on Zion Rd. in Fayetteville. Construction on the project began in November 2020. Workers have taken on segments with the goal to improve the street from Vantage Drive to Crossover Road. Visit nwaonline.com/220703Daily/ for daily galleries. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/J.T. Wampler)
 
 
  photo  Road work continues Wednesday on Zion Rd. in Fayetteville. Construction on the project began in November 2020. Workers have taken on segments with the goal to improve the street from Vantage Drive to Crossover Road. Visit nwaonline.com/220703Daily/ for daily galleries. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/J.T. Wampler)
 
 

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For more information on the Zion Road improvement project, go to:

https://bit.ly/fayzionroad

 


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