BENTONVILLE — The most expensive road project in the city’s history took a leap forward Tuesday.
The Eighth Street Improvement Project — a $38.7 million federally earmarked widening and expansion of South Eighth Street from Walton Boulevard to Interstate 540 — has now entered the surveying and design phase. The City Council approved the next step when it voted to allow the city to enter into a supplemental agreement with Burns & McDonnell Company for engineering services.
“This is singly setting precedent for Bentonville,” Mayor Bob McCaslin said. “Bentonville has never worked on a project this large within the city.”
No previous road project in Bentonville comes close to the price tag put on the Eighth Street project, with the Southwest ‘I’ Street project under construction being the second most costly project at $15.5 million. Of the $38.7 million set aside for Eighth Street, $31.2 million comes from federally earmarked money, $6.5 million from Walmart and another $500,000 from both Bentonville Plaza money and the city.
“We’ve never had anything this major in the city,” Alderwoman Mary Baggett said. “We’re talking about building a ramp off I-540 and federal dollars involved. We’ve never done anything to this magnitude.
“This is like when we built the airport. I don’t think we’ll realize how big it is until it is finished.”
Engineers at Burns and McDonnell said Tuesday the design phase will take approximately two years to complete and cost $4.8 million.
Churchwell estimated the project would still be looking at another three and half years of utility work and construction — putting the project’s completion at five years — after the design work is finished.
“The timeframe is pretty disconcerting,” Churchwell said. “But it is what it is.”
The Eighth Street improvement will provide the city with a corridor from I-540 to the Walmart’s home office and is expected to relieve traffic which affects both 14th Street and Central Avenue. Churchwell said the entrance to the David Glass Building at the intersection of Southeast 8th Street and Moberly Lane would become part of the new Eighth Street extension to I-540.
“We’ll probably get a few parking spaces from this,” Churchwell said. “But we’re not going to affect the (Walmart ISD) building.”
In other council business, a new city-run recreation program was approved.
The new program — which passed, 5-2, with councilmen James Dotson and Bill Burckart voting against — allows the city to hire a recreation program coordinator while also giving the Parks and Recreation Department control of recreation programs, except for youth football and youth basketball.
The issue drew a large crowd opposed to the new program, specifically those now involved in youth soccer run by NWA Lightning.
“This might be a very good thing for the city, but my concern is the role of private sector versus public sector,” Dotson said. “This type of thing has probably been successful in other cities and I sincerely hope it is successful here. It’s just more of a philosophical thing with me on short notice. I just needed to have more research.”