SPRINGDALE — Trail construction will close parts of three downtown streets for several weeks.
Meadow Avenue will close at 8 a.m. today for as long as two weeks. The street will be closed to traffic from Holcomb Street to Commercial Street.
Emma and Johnson avenues will close later, said Sam Goade, public works director. The closings will allow concrete, poured during the construction, to cure, he said.
“You have to have at least a week for the concrete to cure when you have heavy traffic like trucks,” Goade said. “If you don’t, you will have premature cracking.”
The construction will create crossings for the Razorback Greenway, said Patsy Christie, planning director. The greenway will be a 36-mile trail stretching from south Fayetteville to Lake Bella Vista.
On Emma and Meadow, the crossings will be a raised, 8-foot-wide lane. Light-emitting diodes will be embedded in the pavement on each side of the lane. A 3-foot ramp on each side of the street will connect the pavement to the trail crossing.
“The crossing will be similar to those in Fayetteville,” Christie said, “except with the lights to mark it.”
The crossing on Johnson, on top of the bridge over Spring Creek, will have the marking lights only, Christie said. A solar panel will power the lights at each crossing, she said.
A federal energy grant paid for the lights and solar panels, Christie said.
The lighted crossings are much needed, said Heather Nichols, a member of the Downtown Alliance. The alliance is looking to redevelop downtown Springdale.
“The trail will bring in more pedestrian traffic to the city,” Nichols said. “The city needs more foot traffic downtown and people need to feel safe.”
When the crossing is finished on Meadow, the construction crew will move to Johnson, Goade said. Both streets could be closed at the same time, he said.
Johnson will be closed between Spring Street and the section of Mill Street heading south from Johnson, he said. Mill Street south of Johnson is east of Spring Creek while the section north is west of the creek, because of a zig-zag in the street.
Meadow and Johnson will have to open before Emma is closed, Goade said.
“We have some one-way streets off Emma that will make closing it more complicated,” Goade said.
Emma will be closed in front of Shiloh Square, between Shiloh and Mill streets.
Westbound traffic will probably be detoured north and eastbound south, Goade said. The city will notify the public before Johnson and Emma avenues close, he said.