FAYETTEVILLE — Fayetteville can expect another year of major road projects beginning next year, including improvements to Interstate 540 and two major interchanges, and several major connector projects, Chris Brown, city engineer, told about two dozen people who attended Mayor Lioneld Jordan’s Town Hall meeting Monday night.
Brown said several projects are nearing completion, including an overpass bridge that will take traffic off North College and away from the Joyce Boulevard intersection to the Fulbright Expressway and I-540.
“That’s a program I haven’t heard one person say a bad thing about,” Brown said.
Improvements to Cato Springs Road, in south Fayetteville, and improvements to Crossover Road and Huntsville Road in east Fayetteville are also nearing completion.
Brown said there are about $22 million in city street projects on tap to begin next year that are part of the city’s street improvement bond program, including improvements to Van Asche Drive, Zion Road, Old Wire Road and the extension of Rupple Road.
The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department has the widening of I-540 from Wedington to Porter Road just getting under way and improvements to the turn lanes at the Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Wedington Drive interchanges are expected next year as well as improvements to the Arkansas 112 interchange. Those projects will be paid for using more than $50 million in highway sales tax money approved by voters in a statewide election last year.
“Those projects represent a very large investment by the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department on I-540,” Brown said.
The Town Hall style meeting also saw presentations from various department heads on a variety of projects in the city, including an update on a proposed new regional park in southwest Fayetteville, a 2014 budget update, an update on the city’s microseal program to rehabilitate rather than rebuild streets, as well as updates on the proposed new parking deck for the Walton Arts Center, new wayfinding signs and a new recycling drop-off center the city just opened.
Brian Pugh, the city’s waste reduction coordinator, said a new glass recycling effort in the city’s entertainment district is collecting about three tons of glass a week.
A cigarette litter reduction program is getting up and running, Pugh said. The cleanup of the area one recent weekend netted more than 3,000 cigarette butts, he said.
“Unfortunately, with Dickson Street, we have a very large problem with cigarette litter,” Pugh said.
Jordan said he plans another Town Hall meeting later this year or early next year.