FAYETTEVILLE -- Crossover Road and south Old Missouri Road, the major north-south corridor on the east side of Fayetteville and Springdale, opened to through traffic Wednesday after a month of bridge and drainage construction closed the road to all but local traffic.
The closing was 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 was part of the ongoing Arkansas 265 improvement project.
Closing the road during the summer was about the only option because the area is in the Clear Creek floodplain, Fayetteville officials said.
The Arkansas Highway Commission awarded a $9.5 million contract last year for the project to Decco Contractors-Paving of Rogers. The project eventually will 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 Don Tyson Parkway in Springdale is essentially done. A short section from Don Tyson south to Ivey Lane will be done as part of the Joyce to Tyson project.
Crossover widening work is under way 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 Randall 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 a north-south route east of the metro area has been on regional planners' wish lists since at least 1973.
NW News on 07/31/2014