Interstate 540 To Be Designated Interstate 49 Beginning Next Week

— Interstate 49 signs will go up as soon as next week on sections of Interstate 540 and U.S. 71, state highway officials said Wednesday.

The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department recently received approval from the Federal Highway Administration and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials to rename the section from Interstate 40, near Alma, to the U.S. 71B interchange just south of Bella Vista.

Beginning next week, the route will be designated Interstate 49.

"We are pleased to have this new designation," Scott Bennett, director of the Highway Department said in a news release. "This is something we have been working on for several months. In addition, we are awaiting Federal Highway Administration approval to designate future sections of Interstate 49 between Interstate 40 and the Louisiana state line."

Highway crews are expected to replace the old road signs beginning Tuesday. Interstate 49 signs should be installed along the 65-mile route within 30 days, officials said. The Highway Department will be placing nearly 700 signs at a cost of about $70,000.

Jeff Hawkins, executive director of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission, said the new designation could pressure officials to more quickly to address the remaining gap in the highway between south Fort Smith and Kansas City.

"I think it's a plus to get the signs. It's good for travel, it's good for commerce," Hawkins said. "It may well put a little more pressure on to fill that gap. You've got that one gap and it's called the Bella Vista Bypass.

The Bella Vista Bypass, which is under construction, will have a dual designation as "Arkansas 549 and Future I-49" until it's completed to interstate standards. A two-lane section of the bypass around Hiwasse will open to traffic next week.

"We are excited to be officially naming this section of roadway as Interstate 49 in Arkansas," said Highway Commissioner Dick Trammel of Rogers. "This is part of our ultimate goal to upgrade the U.S. 71 corridor. When completed, Interstate 49 in Arkansas will stretch from the Louisiana border north to the Missouri border."

I-49 also will gain about seven miles in Bentonville because the highway from exit 86, where the official I-540 designation now ends, to exit 93, just south of Bella Vista, will carry the I-49 designation.

"I can't tell you how many inquiries and complaints we get from people leaving Crystal Bridges looking for an I-540 sign and there's not one, it says U.S. 71," Hawkins said.

When complete, I-49 will run from New Orleans to the Canadian border. There's a large section missing between Fort Smith and Texarkana, and the highway department doesn't have the money to build it for the foreseeable future. The section from Kansas City south to Pineville was renamed I-49 in December 2012.

I-540 started out in the 1970s as a spur around Fort Smith from I-40 to the Oklahoma state line. The newer, northern portion of I-540 was completed in the late 1990s and was first opened to Mountainburg as Arkansas 540. On Jan. 8, 1999, the road was fully opened to traffic and re-designated I-540 and the "John Paul Hammerschmidt Highway" in honor of the former longtime U.S. representative. Having been planned since the early 1970s, it created a bypass for the older U.S. 71 through the Boston Mountains.

Portions of the road that became I-540 around Fayetteville were built in the early 1970s and upgraded and extended in the mid-1990s. The highway around Fayetteville originally received U.S. 71 signage until the complete I-540 spur was opened.

NW News on 04/17/2014

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