FAYETTEVILLE -- The city hopes cars, pedestrians and bicycles will move together in harmony along what is now a largely narrow, auto-oriented corridor.
The City Council's Transportation Committee on Tuesday reviewed conceptual plans to redesign North Street from Garland Avenue to Mission Boulevard. The city included $3.4 million in a transportation bond issue that voters approved in 2019 to overhaul the corridor.
McClelland Consulting Engineers in Fayetteville came up with the design. City Public Works Director Chris Brown said the goal was to add capacity for pedestrians and bicycles while not taking away from cars' ability to travel. Changes at North Street and College Avenue would allow cars to line up more efficiently at the hilly intersection, he said.
"We do have limited east-west routes. I think we've definitely got to be careful about trying to add one mode of travel without negatively impacting another," Brown said. "We're trying to find a balance."
Most of North Street would get new overlay. The only sections that would be widened would be at the College Avenue intersection. The city would need to acquire right of way from property owners along North Street to make room for sidewalks, although administrators aren't sure how much yet, Brown said.
The Garland Avenue and North Street intersection would become more pedestrian-friendly, Brown said. The area sees many people walking with Harps grocery store, a shopping center and the University of Arkansas campus all nearby, he said.
The right turn lanes extending from the intersection on three sides would be replaced with landscaping and sidewalks. Medians also would serve as pedestrian islands to give walkers a place to stand if they get caught after the crossing light changes.
Both sides of North Street would have sidewalks east of the Garland intersection. Sidewalks also would lie on both sides of Lindell Avenue, stemming from North Street, east of the intersection. Lindell doesn't have sidewalks now.
Two pieces of Mount Comfort Road connecting to North Street from near Oakland Avenue would be cut off to cars. Drivers instead could use Lindell Avenue if they wanted to head north and avoid the intersection, Brown said.
The single lane for westbound traffic on North Street would become two lanes at Scull Creek Trail, which is west of Gregg Avenue. It currently becomes two lanes after the intersection with Gregg. The sidewalk on the south side of North Street also would end near there. The sidewalk on the north side would switch to the south side with a crosswalk at Woolsey Avenue.
A left turn lane would be added for westbound traffic trying to turn south onto College Avenue at that intersection. Eastbound traffic already has a turn lane to head north onto College Avenue. With the added turn lane, cars would be able to move in both directions at the same time, rather than alternating one side at a time like now, Brown said.
The sidewalk on the south side of North Street would continue all the way to Mission Boulevard, about half a mile east from the intersection with College Avenue. The sidewalk will connect to a separate project, Mission Trail, to connect pedestrians and bicyclists on Mission Boulevard from Maple Street to Viewpoint Drive.
A roundabout proposed at a neighborhood street west of the intersection at Mission has gained significant public attention. Several of the 40 pages of comments that residents submitted for an online questionnaire about the project mentioned the roundabout, both in support and opposition.
The concepts show a small, three-lane roundabout replacing a stop sign at Hillcrest Avenue, at the top of the hill on North Street west of Mission Boulevard. The stop sign is there because cars can't see over the hill, Brown said.
"We get a lot of people running that stop sign -- either barely slowing down and seeing that there is no traffic and no need to stop, or just kind of completely missing the stop sign," he said.
Replacing the stop sign with a roundabout would force drivers to slow down and yield to other cars, Brown said. Emergency vehicles would be able to run over the center of the roundabout without suffering damage, he said.
Three neighbors spoke to the committee Tuesday about the roundabout. Meredith Dowse said a roundabout seemed like an expensive way to keep people from running a stop sign. She said she's experienced several near-collisions at the intersection and didn't see how a roundabout would fix that issue. She suggested putting in blinking lights like at a school zone.
"I'm not sure if a roundabout is a solution to every traffic issue that we have," Dowse said.
Brown said other options, such as a traffic signal, are still possible at the intersection.
Since 2018, there have been three accidents reported at the intersection, according to Fayetteville police Sgt. Anthony Murphy.
About 7,300 cars per day move along North Street between Mission Boulevard and College Avenue, according to an Arkansas Department of Transportation map. About 10,000 per day go through the intersection at College Avenue, with about 16,000 per day at the Garland Avenue intersection.
Council members were split over the roundabout at Hillcrest Avenue.
Sarah Bunch said she shared some of the residents' concerns about the roundabout and wanted to evaluate all the options. Holly Hertzberg asked for cost estimates to compare a roundabout versus a traffic signal. Sonia Gutierrez Harvey said she's never seen a car run into another car at a roundabout and cost shouldn't be a concern when potentially saving lives.
The committee will discuss the North Street corridor plan again at its next meeting in a month. The full City Council will decide the final design.
Brown said construction would happen in phases, likely starting late this year or in early 2023.