Street Projects Prioritized

Workers with Dirt Co. haul away the foundation Wednesday of a former warehouse on Johnson Road in Johnson, making way for improvement to the road. The Johnson Road project will connect the road to Greathouse Springs Road near Interstate 540.
Workers with Dirt Co. haul away the foundation Wednesday of a former warehouse on Johnson Road in Johnson, making way for improvement to the road. The Johnson Road project will connect the road to Greathouse Springs Road near Interstate 540.

— City officials know what street projects will be built and the order in which they will be built, but not when.

The City Council Street and Capital Improvement Program Committee on Tuesday prioritized a list of street improvements to be built as money becomes available. The city’s bond program will pay for some of the projects, but how many won’t be known until construction bids are awarded.

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City of Springdale

Elm Springs overpass widening

“Once we have a contract on the Don Tyson Interchange, we’ll have a much better idea of how far we can stretch the bond money,” said Mayor Doug Sprouse. “It should start falling into place.”

The bond program, approved by city voters in August, will raise $42.7 million for street projects. It also will bring in $16.1 million for parks and $8.5 million for fire stations. A 1 percent existing sales tax, first approved in 1993, will pay off the bonds.

By The Numbers

Priority for Springdale Street Projects

Project Estimated Cost

-Don Tyson Parkway Interchange — $25 million

-Tyson Parkway, Hylton to Habberton — $3.3 million

-Tyson Parkway, 40th to Carley — 2.2 million

-Widening Elm Springs Road overpass — $1 million

-56th Street, Sunset to Arvest Ballpark — $5.1 million

-56th Street, Arvest to Tyson Parkway — $1.6 million

-56th Street, Sunset to Harber Avenue — $4.5 million

-56th Street, Harber to Elm Springs Road — $2.8 million

-Elm Springs Road, Oak Grove to 56t— $2.1 million

-48th Street Extension — $2 million

-Hylton Road, Tyson Parkway to Julio Road — $500,000

Possible Additions

-56th Street, Elm Springs Road to Bob Mills Road — $2 million

-Watkins Avenue, 64th Street to Arkansas 112 — No estimate

The cost of widening the Elm Springs Road overpass would be shared with the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department

Source: City Of Springdale

The interchange on Interstate 540 has been the city’s priority for several years. The estimated $25 million cost will eat up more than half of money available for streets. A contract is expected to be awarded in January, said Patsy Christie, city director of planning.

“We are very excited about the interchange,” said Eric Edelstein, general manager of the Northwest Arkansas Naturals, a minor league baseball team. “We’ve made due with our roads in the area, but this will make access to Arvest (Ballpark) so much easier.”

The Naturals play in Arvest Ballpark, located about one-fourth of a mile north of the interchange site.

Alderman Rick Evans, chairman of the committee, suggested negotiating engineering contracts for 11 projects.

“That will take us past the bond money, looking at the estimated costs,” Evans said. “It will give us some projects ready to go, if some other funding sources come through.”

Those sources include federal Surface Transportation Program money, Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department money, federal money sent directly to Northwest Arkansas for regional projects, revenue from the recently approved half-percent sales tax for highway projects and the city’s Capital Improvement Program.

Projects with completed designs are more likely to receive money from some of those sources, Christie said.

At the top of the priority list are two improvements on Don Tyson Parkway. An extension on the east end of the parkway from Hylton to Habberton roads would give traffic from Turnbow Elementary an alternative to using U.S. 412. It also would give better access to the proposed park land purchase on the southeast corner of Hylton and Tyson Parkway.

Widening the parkway between 40th Street and Carley Road would eliminate an existing bottleneck. The parkway narrows from five to three lanes between those streets.

Ray Dotson, a former alderman who lives near the corner of Carley and the parkway, said this will be the third time the city has done work on the roads. Each project has nibbled away at his property, he said.

“I would love it if they managed to miss my house,” Dotson said. “The easement comes within 18 inches of the corner of my living room. There is not much more to take before they get the house.”

The next project on the list is widening of the overpass at the Elm Springs Road interchange on Interstate 540. The street on both sides of the overpass has been improved and the bridge restriped, Christie said, but the bridge is too narrow for the number of vehicles using it.

The state Highway Department would oversee bridge improvements with the city contributing money to the project.

The next four projects would improve existing sections of 56th Street and connect sections between the parkway and Elm Springs Road. Arvest Ballpark is located on 56th Street, the main access road to the baseball stadium. Following the four 56th Street projects is a project that would widen Elm Springs Road from Oak Grove to 56th Street.

Connecting the sections of 56th Street would create a north-south route between I-540 and Arkansas 112, said John McLarty, transportation planner for the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission.

“We are in favor of any north-south street that would take pressure off of 540,” McLarty said. “We’ve had that street in our long-range planning for years.”

Regional planning’s proposed street network shows 56th Street as a future four-lane street from Johnson to Wagon Wheel Road. The plans call for four lanes over different streets to continue all the way to Bentonville.

Another project, the extension of 48th Street, would create a frontage street on the east side of I-540 from Sunset Avenue to Elm Springs Road.

The final project on the list is improvements on Hylton Road from Julio Road to the parkway. That project would create a street with sidewalks and gutters between the new junior high school under construction on Hylton and the planned park.

Sprouse asked two other projects be considered for design work and possible construction. One was 56th Street from Elm Spring Road to Bob Mills Road. That connection would allow better access to a proposed park by using 56th Street and County Line Road.

The other project would extend Watkins Street from 64th Street to Arkansas 112. That work would connect Arkansas 112 to Tyson Park. Also connected would be Arvest Ballpark and the proposed site of NorthWest Arkansas Community College’s Washington County campus, said Alderman Jim Reed.

“It would really help us to have four-lane streets to the ballpark,” Edelstein said. “I think we are more excited to have a better chance for development around us. The street projects should be a major boost to bring in more businesses to the area.”

The committee asked that local engineering firms be used for the project designs. Evans, Brad Bruns and Eric Ford voted to use Engineering Services Inc. for all the 56th Street projects. Another Springdale firm, USI Consulting Engineers, was the pick by the planning staff for the extension and improvements on Don Tyson Parkway.

“Other cities take care of their local companies first,” Ford said. “I think we should do the same.”

Engineering contracts are subject to negotiation and approval by the full council.

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