Advocates for the Bella Vista bypass didn’t let the year end without one more pitch for this critical interstate highway link.
In a news release last week, Mike Malone, executive director of the Northwest Arkansas Council, reported that the coalition established to support the project has now passed the 50-member mark.
That’s 50 member organizations, not 50 individuals. An individual count, where such a thing possible, would multiply that number many times over.
The whole point of the coalition is to demonstrate broad support for the project and increase the chance that it will be among the chosen few to get federal stimulus dollars due to be announced soon. The list of members makes a pretty effective case for that.
As Malone noted, the organizations on the list represent millions of residents not just in Missouri and Arkansas but in Oklahoma and Texas as well as others who wouldn’t benefit quite so directly from the bypass.
This road has long been a primary goal for people in this immediate region because it will ease the often severe traffic congestion on existing highways. The project also promises to put local people to work at a time when people need jobs.
The primary reason people from all these states have an interest in this comparatively short stretch of highway is that it would complete a significant link in the interstate highway system.
We’re talking here of a 20-mile stretch of the future Interstate 49, which would connect existing interstates in Northwest Arkansas and Southwest Missouri and ease major traffic congestion along the U.S. 71 corridor between the states.
More importantly, to those elsewhere, this new artery would help make the final link in the future I-49 between Fort Smith and Kansas City.
Roughly 15 miles of theproject are in Arkansas and the other five in Missouri.
That state has set aside money to get its portion of the road built. Arkansas has not yet put enough money together to get the job done. But the two states have jointly applied for federal stimulus funds which, with planned tolls on the road, would pay for its construction.
It is a pricey project and is competing with many more projects from around the nation for discretionary dollars under control of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
The newest members of the I-49/Bella Vista Bypass Coalition are the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce and the Arkansas Asphalt Pavement Association.
The application is strong, clearly worthy of consideration; but the competition is incredible for these TIGER grants.
The acronym stands for “transportation investment generating economic recovery.”
The requests come from every state, the District of Columbia and three territories and LaHood must be being pelted with arguments.
So, supporters of this I-49 project, better known around here as the Bella Vista bypass, need to step up the pressure any way they can.
The scheduled deadline for announcing the grants is upon us. In September, LaHood’s office pledged to announce the grants as soon as possible, preferably by January and no later than Feb. 17.
BRENDA BLAGG IS A COLUMNIST FOR NORTHWEST ARKANSAS NEWSPAPERS.
Opinion, Pages 11 on 12/27/2009