BENTONVILLE — Officials hope a road project that’s been in the works for nearly three years will be finished by this fall.

Windmill Road, a dirt road in southwest Bentonville, will be paved from Morningstar Road to Southwest H Street, a stretch of about 1 1/4 miles. It’s a joint project of the Bentonville School District, the city of Bentonville and Benton County. It’s expected to cost a little more than $1 million.

The School District paid for the survey and design of the road, the city will provide the materials and the county will provide the labor. The three parties agreed to the deal in July 2011. Project completion originally was expected by August 2013.

Construction is only now getting started, however, because right-of-way acquisition took longer than anyone thought it would, said Bob Clinard, county judge.

“For three of the plots we had to get an order of possession,” Clinard said. “That was 90 percent of the problem. We didn’t get the final right-of-way things done until November or December.”

Clinard admitted even if right-of-ways had been obtained sooner, turmoil in the county’s Road Department last year probably would’ve delayed the project anyway. Three top administrators in the department were arrested in connection with allegations of theft.

Fences are being moved back now and construction should take 150 days, Clinard said.

About half of the property is in the county and half is in the city. Windmill Road also is just south of a cluster of four schools, the reason for the School District’s interest in the project. Nineteen school buses use the road, according to Chris DeWitt, district transportation director.

“It’s going to be an integral thing for transportation,” said Paul Wallace, district director of facilities.

The county is interested in the project because it provides an alternate paved route into Bentonville, Clinard said.

The project will include a 30-foot-wide asphalt roadway with turn lanes at Morningstar Road, Bright Road and Southwest H Street. The street will not include curb and gutter so it can be widened to five lanes when traffic volumes increase.