Commentary: Rogers Faces Many Street Projects in Coming Year

Rogers Faces Many Street Projects in Coming Year

Street construction is not fun, but we have a lot of it to look forward to in Rogers next year.

Generally speaking, I can find a back way around construction and congestion. Distance-wise, it might be a few blocks farther, but I like to avoid areas where I know drivers are going to be frustrated and driving like idiots.

A new street off Pauline Whitaker Parkway that will kind of parallel Interstate 49 as well as widening projects for Perry, Bellview, Pleasant Grove roads and Price Lane should help de-congest some problem areas.

So should the work widening the portion of First Street between Olrich and Birch streets.

First Street needs widening badly, and it really needs that crazy curve at Oak Street straightened out. That's not in this contract, unfortunately.

First Street is a busy north-south corridor. I know this because I drive it often -- probably for the same reason other drivers do. It gets you off heavily traveled Eighth Street. If you don't want to go all the way west to Interstate 49, it's First or Eighth.

The First Street work -- besides being much needed -- is advance work the city is doing in preparation for the eastern corridor which will, eventually, run from Fayetteville to north of Rogers' core. It appears traffic will be routed back to U.S. 62 somewhere near Rogers Municipal Airport. I'll be curious about how they get that traffic over the railroad tracks. A flyover perhaps?

The region really needs that eastern corridor. I may have said that already. How quickly it will come to fruition in the Rogers area remains to be seen. A Highway Department spokesman told reporter John Gore maybe between 2016 and 2019.

Well, that is sooner than most of us thought.

The design work on the Rogers portion of the project isn't complete, but tentatively it would come north along Old Wire Road to somewhere south of town. There it would angle west to First Street, then traffic would travel north.

The logic of this route fails me. Oh, I know I'm not an engineer, but I do see one big red flag immediately: all that traffic traveling along First? It's going to go right smack dab through an area that includes three schools -- one of which houses high school students -- the School District's bus barn, and several good-sized residential subdivisions.

Doesn't seem like the smartest route to me. That area is already very congested before and after school. More vehicles would seem to ramp up the problem potential. More vehicles generally equal more opportunities for accidents.

And there are a lot of kids who walk to and from schools in that area. Kids and vehicles can equal safety issues, too.

I'm sure the engineers have an idea of what will happen after the corridor crosses Oak Street south of downtown. I have difficulty wrapping my head around it.

Yes, we know, there will be a roundabout, or traffic circle, in the Oak-First-B-Arkansas street area. And then? Maybe, traffic would travel Arkansas Street -- a really bad choice if you ask me. Right through downtown on what would likely be some expensive property that would have to be purchased.

Another option would be east of Tyson's Elm Street plant. That's through residential areas, too, and in close proximity to the bike park and trails being built now, not to mention Lake Atalanta. We darn sure don't want that project adversely impacted.

So what to do? Well, I am sure the engineers have an idea. They may share it with us next year.

I use to tell John Sampier, when he was mayor, we needed an elevated loop around the city. I may have bring that idea up again. Not that I like elevated roads, but they may be in our future.

•••

While talking about frustrated drivers, can I make a suggestion? Don't do something stupid to make the other people on the road frustrated.

On Sunday, I was at Pinnacle Hills Promenade, leaving the area near Hancock Fabrics. I pulled behind a large SUV, which was crawling. I stayed behind it because it was moving. The next thing I knew, whoever was driving had pulled across the width of the access road blocking all traffic. On a Sunday. With Christmas shopping in full swing.

Apparently this was done to pick someone up.

And I'll bet that driver doesn't understand why road rage incidents occur.

LEEANNA WALKER IS LOCAL EDITOR OF THE ROGERS MORNING NEWS AND SPRINGDALE MORNING NEWS. FOLLOW HER ON TWITTER AT WWW.TWITTER.COM/NWALEEANNA.

Commentary on 12/18/2014

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