Tom Overbey of Fayetteville wonders why work at Wedington Drive near Interstate 540 isn’t moving along a little faster.
The Guru this week answers Overbey’s questions about Wedington and other short-term improvements to better connect four roads to I-540. Afterward, The Guru shares bad news with a Rogers resident.
Question: “The Wedington Drive improvement project at Interstate 540 seems to be moving slowly,” Overbey writes. “The contractor takes an action and then nothing further happens for weeks. The project seems a bit uncoordinated.
“Some of the work seems a little rough. Look at the curb rebuild on North Futrall Drive near Bill Eddy’s Motorsports. It looks like eighth-graders did the finish work. What do you think?”
Answer: It doesn’t matter what The Guru thinks, but he will share what he learned from Joe Shipman, the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department’s district engineer at Fort Smith.
The state paid $2.3 million to APAC-Arkansas’ McClinton-Anchor Division to improve four I-540 exits. They are at Wedington Drive and Arkansas 112 in Fayetteville, Arkansas 264 in Lowell and Arkansas 72 in Bentonville. The work is on schedule to be done by Oct. 1, Shipman said.
One crew handling the work at Arkansas 112 and Wedington is near the end of the former project. That means more attention will be given to Wedington in coming weeks, Shipman said.
Work at Wedington was complicated by a power line east of I-540 that affected the installation of a traffic signal and Wedington’s widening. The line was moved last week.
As for that bad curb, the utility company that hired a contractor to work on the curb has been “advised that the curb work is not acceptable,” Shipman said. It’ll be fixed.
Q: Herb Shawver takes a friend to Mercy Medical Center in Rogers. “Each time we leave [the hospital], we find ourselves behind a line of cars waiting to turn left off Rife Medical Lane at Promenade Boulevard,” he writes.
“We’ve observed several near misses over the past four months. Traffic from both directions on Promenade bears down at 40 mph or more.
“What would it take to get a signal installed before someone is injured or worse yet killed? Although there is another entrance/ exit to the Mercy medical complex with a signal farther south, it is little used since it requires considerable extra driving.”
A: The city has no plan for a signal at Rife Medical Lane and Promenade northeast of the hospital, said Steve Glass, the city’stransportation and planning director.
Knowing that, The Guru wonders whether the city should put up a sign to guide drivers toward the signalized intersection to the southeast where the Rife loop also connects with Promenade.
Robert J. Smith, aka The Guru, writes on traffic issues in Northwest Arkansas on Fridays. He can be reached at nwaonline.com/guru or [email protected].
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 07/30/2010