FAYETTEVILLE — Drivers can expect delays for several weeks as construction begins on a tunnel under Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
The tunnel is the most notable feature of a planned half-mile extension to the Frisco Trail. The trail will extend from just west of South School Avenue, run alongside The Grove apartments, cross School just south of El Camino Real Mexican restaurant and connect to the trail around Walker Park near a public skate park.
Traffic will be reduced from five to two lanes from School west to Government Avenue while the tunnel is dug and precast concrete boxes are put into place. Cones and concrete barriers will go up Monday or Tuesday, blocking all but the two southernmost lanes on King Boulevard, Ron Troutman, owner and president of Boulder Construction, said Thursday. Lane closures will move north as the project progresses.
Troutman advised drivers to stay away if possible during construction.
“If you’re not going to or live in the area, it’s probably best to find a better, faster route,” Troutman said.
Matt Mihalevich, city trails coordinator, said he wants all tunnel work done before the Razorbacks’ first home football game Aug. 31. It will be a stretch to have all lanes of traffic
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Razorback Greenway
The half-mile Frisco Trail extension, when complete, will be the southern end of the Razorback Regional Greenway, a 36-mile network of trails connecting south Fayetteville to Lake Bella Vista. City Council members in Rogers and Springdale, earlier this month, approved condemning several easements needed to build trail sections in those cities. John McLarty, senior planner with the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission, said Thursday he expects all sections of the greenway to be complete by March 31.
Source: Staff Report
open in mid-August when University of Arkansas freshmen start moving in, he added.
Mihalevich said the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department was great to work with on the project, but permits for the state highway took some time.
“We’ve done everything we can to get started taking into account that this is a pretty big project,” he said.
Businesses along the busy boulevard gave mixed assessments of what impact the project will have.
Christine Smith, a saleswoman at Castle Rental just west of Government Avenue, said, “I don’t think it’s going to affect us at all. It’s going to be an added bonus to the community once it’s done.”
Josh Wheeler, a manager at Robert’s Auto Repair across the street, said he’ll see fewer customers during construction.
“Anywhere from 40 to 60 percent of our business at any one time is from drive-by customers,” Wheeler said. “A month and a half is a long time for us to be out there trying to get business.”
City staff members and aldermen picked a tunnel as the best of three options last year after months of public discussion.
A street crossing was considered unsafe. “We didn’t feel comfortable sending trail users across that five-lane highway,” Mihalevich said. A bridge would have been more expensive to build than a tunnel, and ramps to a bridge would have taken up more space on either side of the street, he added.
In the course of public meetings, several residents raised concerns about the potential for vagrancy and criminal activity in the tunnel. Mihalevich said Thursday the tunnel will be well-lit, and police will patrol the area.
“We’re going to be watching it real close,” Mihalevich said. “And one of the best things we’ve found for keeping trails safe is users. We think the amount of use we’re going to see on the trail will discourage negative activity.”
City Council members approved a $1.4 million contract with Boulder Construction last week. About $1.2 million is expected to come from the Walton Family Foundation as part of the 36-mile Razorback Regional Greenway. The half-mile extension to the Frisco Trail will take eight months to complete, Mihalevich said.
Boulder Construction did several Greenway projects in Bentonville, including a tunnel under A Street.
The Frisco Trail extension and the 3-mile Clear Creek Trail to connect Lake Fayetteville to the Mud and Scull Creek trails are the two largest Greenway projects that remain in Fayetteville.
Mihalevich said the Clear Creek Trail should be finished by the end the year.
He said the Frisco Trail extension will eventually tie in to the Tsa La Gi Trail, a 1.8-mile path that will run west to Hollywood Avenue, and the Town Branch Trail that will connect Greathouse Park to South School Avenue.
“I’ve kind of thought of this project as the hub of a wheel connecting a lot of trails,” Mihalevich said. “We had a literal roadblock with MLK. By breaking under there, it opens up the south part of town with trail connections.”