Work Will Close Crossover Through July In Fayetteville, Springdale

A large portion of a major thoroughfare from Fayetteville to Springdale will be closed beginning Monday to all except local traffic through the end of the month for bridge and drainage work, according to state highway officials.

Crossover Road and South Old Missouri Road will be closed to through traffic between Joyce Boulevard and Don Tyson Parkway. There will be detours marked to use Joyce Boulevard and Don Tyson Parkway.

"There's never a good time to close a major north/south corridor," said Chris Brown, city engineer in Fayetteville. "It is unusual. I expect it's going to create some headaches."

Local traffic will be allowed to use the road designated Arkansas 265 to access residences or businesses, such as the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks, but no through traffic will be allowed. The road normally carries 15,000 to 17,000 cars a day in the area that will be closed, according to Highway Department traffic counts.

Truck traffic will not be allowed on the portion of the Don Tyson Parkway used for the detour route.

The road closing is expected to last through July 29.

The closing will allow for the removal of a drainage structure and for the construction of approaches for a new bridge over Clear Creek, according to a Highway Department news release.

The work is part of the ongoing Arkansas 265 improvement project.

The project will impact fire and police responses in both cities because each has some coverage areas on the other side of the project, Brown said. But, the departments have coordinated and have agreed to cover for each other in those areas during the work.

Brown said doing the project in the middle of the summer should cause the least disruption possible and he's hoping the work gets done early. Brown explained closing the road during the summer was about the only option because of the Clear Creek floodplain.

The Arkansas Highway Commission awarded a $9.5 million contract last year for the project to Decco Contractors-Paving of Rogers. The project will eventually widen the highway from three lanes to a grass median divided highway with two lanes and a bike lane in each direction from Joyce Boulevard in Fayetteville to Ivey Lane in Springdale.

Widening from Robinson Avenue south to Tyson in Springdale is essentially done. A short section from Tyson to south to Ivey Lane will be done as part of the Joyce to Tyson project.

Part of the Crossover widening work is underway north of Joyce Boulevard.

A newly widened section of Crossover Road between Mission Boulevard and Joyce was completed in June. The city paid half of the $15.5 million cost of the project in order to get that project expedited and to have more say in its design.

Plans call for Arkansas 265 to be widened to four lanes from Huntsville Road in south Fayetteville to Randal Wobbe Lane in north Springdale. Highway officials plan to eventually extend the highway north through Bethel Heights and Lowell all the way to the northeast side of Rogers, making it the primary north-south corridor on the east side of the metro area and taking some traffic off Interstate 49.

The Highway Department's preferred alignment will extend Arkansas 265 north from Wagon Wheel Road in Springdale to New Hope Road in Rogers, using a combination of improvements to routes and new construction. It will begin at Arkansas 264 and continue north roughly along Old Wire Road. At Frisco Cemetery Road, a new road will continue north until it connects with South First Street in Rogers. The route will continue along South First Street and end at New Hope Road.

South of the Benton-Washington county line, Springdale would use the current alignment of Arkansas 265 but part of the highway north of Randall Wobbe Lane could be moved. Arkansas 265 stops running north and jogs west at Arkansas 264 in northern Springdale.

A traffic corridor to provide another north-south route east of the metro area has been on wish lists since at least 1973.