BENTONVILLE — School, city and county officials are working out details on how to keep traffic moving smoothly once a new Bentonville high school opens in Centerton.
The new school will be built on Gamble Road, just south and across the street from Centerton Elementary School. It will be about 362,000 square feet and have a 2,250-student capacity.
Benton County Judge Bob Clinard called a meeting in early December to discuss traffic flow with Centerton Mayor Bill Edwards, school Superintendent Michael Poore, state highway officials and the school’s architect from Hight-Jackson Associates.
Centerton officials have pledged $1.4 million to widen Gamble Road from two to three lanes by putting a turn lane in the middle and to pave Seba Road up to the west side of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Edwards said.
Paving Seba Road would happen first as it would also provide a construction entrance to the site, he said. Widening Gamble Road will probably not happen until 2015.
At A Glance
Second High School
A second Bentonville high school will be built in Centerton on Gamble Road. Construction is scheduled to begin in July and take two years to complete. The school is to open in August 2016. It will cost about $86 million. The 2.9-mill tax increase approved by voters in September will provide $73 million, and the state has pledged $13 million to the project.
Source: Staff Report
Edwards said there are ideas about what else can be done, but action won’t be taken until the demographics of the school are known.
“We have some ideas. The county wants to help us also,” he said. “We don’t want to pursue those ideas until we know where those kids are coming from.”
Clinard confirmed there are no specific projects identified on county roads, though two of the three main ways to access the school will be across county roads.
“That can change, and would change, if they need our help,” he said. “Of course there will be a price tag attached to that.”
Clinard said he believes there should be a turn lane at the intersection of Southwest 2nd Street and Herbaugh Road. Herbaugh Road intersects with Gamble Road, north of the project site. He said the intersection of West Centerton Boulevard and Keller Road will also probably need a turn lane and a traffic light may be an appropriate addition at the cross of Seba and Gamble roads.
There’s a lot of work that needs to be done before the school and city officials can come to the county with specific requests, Clinard said.
“I’m on board to help them any way I can,” he said. “I just can’t help them now.”
Poore said a boundary study will be conducted over the summer to help analyze who will be attending the new school.
It makes sense to create boundaries that will benefit the rest of the district, if other adjustments need to be made, he said.
It’s also too early to know the number of buses and cars that will be traveling to and from the school each day, Poore said.