FAYETTEVILLE — Aldermen are nearing a decision on how to reallocate money in the city's Transportation Improvement Bond Program.

The City Council’s Street Committee could make a recommendation March 26 on how to spend an estimated $15.5 million available when a third round of bonds are issued in the third quarter of 2014. City officials want to have designs in place for several new projects when the bonds are issued.

Topping the wish list is improvement to Old Wire and Zion roads, a new street leading to a planned regional park and continued College Avenue beautification.

The city issued $34.2 million in bonds in 2006 and 2009. A third round of bond money is expected to generate $31.7 million. Some of the projects, including a flyover bridge that will connect northbound College Avenue to the Fulbright Expressway, historic bridge restoration on Lafayette and Maple streets and widening of Cato Springs Road, Garland Avenue, Crossover Road and Arkansas 16 are already under way.

Because construction bids for some projects came in lower than expected, and because one project — Garland Avenue widening north of Interstate 540 — was removed from the program list, the city will have $15.5 million to put toward new projects. The city also received grants not factored into the $65.9 million bond program voters approved in 2006. And officials did not use much of the $8.8 million set aside for cost-shares with private developers, according to Chris Brown, city engineer.

Old Wire Road work, if added to the bond program, would include new sidewalks and bike lanes between Mission Boulevard and Crossover Road and a traffic roundabout at the intersection of Old Missouri Road. The improvements have been talked about for years and were a priority for former Ward 3 Alderman Bobby Ferrell. Brown said the sidewalks will give residents a better pedestrian route to Gulley Park and will prevent children from having to walk in steep ditches to get to and from Root Elementary School.

Zion Road improvement was considered but not included in the original bond program. Brown said a sharp curve east of Vantage Drive will be eliminated using a center turn lane. Sidewalks and bike lanes are also planned.

“Basically, we're taking what was once an old country road and getting it up to city standards,” Brown said.

City officials plan to provide regional park access by paving and extending Judge Cummings Road east of Cato Springs Road in southwest Fayetteville. Brown said the new street would connect three parking lots in the planned park. Streetlights, sidewalks and curbs and gutters will be installed, he said.

Sidewalks and tree wells along College Avenue between Maple and North streets would extend improvements that began when former Mayor Dan Coody was in office. Brown said city officials will have to come up with a creative solution for building sidewalks around retaining walls on the west side of College near Rebecca Street and on the east side of College across from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences building. Brown said the city would evaluate burying utility lines.

“I think, ultimately, the goal is to have (these improvements) done all the way up and down College,” he said. “It’s kind of, ‘What can we do with the available funding we have?’”

Brown estimated the four new projects’ cost to the transportation bond program at roughly $11.5 million.

Another $3 million will likely be used to match federal contributions for four other projects: a realigned intersection at Rupple and Mount Comfort roads and widening work on Razorback Road between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Leroy Pond Drive; Huntsville Road between Stonebridge Drive and the West Fork of the White River; and Garland Avenue between Shiloh Drive and Howard Nickell Road.

That leaves about $1 million to be allocated.

Aldermen Matthew Petty and Rhonda Adams have mentioned the need for intersection improvements at Garland Avenue and North Street and at Garland Avenue and Maple Street. Brown said the money could also be set aside to cover any cost overruns.

Or the $1 million could fulfill a request from the nonprofit group Partners for Better Housing, which has plans to build 78 homes for low- to moderate-income residents in southeast Fayetteville.

Board members Rob Sharp and Hugh Earnest asked Street Committee members last month to consider building streets, sidewalks and stormwater facilities to the more than 7-acre property called the Houses at Willow Bend between Washington and Wood avenues, east of Walker Park.

Sharp said Wednesday a taxpayer contribution would be in line with the city’s long-range goal of promoting attainable housing.

The Partners for Better Housing board wants to build houses that people earning 50 to 80 percent of average median income could afford.

According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates between 2007 and 2011, the median household income in Fayetteville is $35,970 and the median home value is $177,900.

Sharp estimated a $1 million contribution from the city would reduce the price of a 1,100-square-foot, two-bedroom, two-bathroom house from $136,660 to $124,572.

“If the city will pick up the tab for their infrastructure, that will make the homes more affordable,” Sharp said.

The 78 homeowners would pay property and sales taxes, thus providing some return on the city’s investment, he added. Sharp said the Partners board is still trying to figure out how to get money for the rest of the development. He said an investment from the city would be a major step toward proving to creditors that the project will be built.

Petty, chairman of the Street Committee, said of the project last month, “It's going to get some serious consideration.”

Brown said he wasn't sure what, if any, new bond projects would be complete by the end of 2015 as he has predicted with all but one of the projects already identified.

The bond program has paid for traffic calming in neighborhoods around Wilson Park; intersection improvements at Gregg Avenue and North Street; College Avenue beautification between Rock and Maple streets; Mount Comfort Road widening and Cato Springs Road work.