BENTONVILLE -- A recent traffic study proffers 29 improvement projects to city planning officials.
"The goal is to develop short-term, mid-term and long-term projects to be on the capital improvements plan and to also evaluate the existing engineering documents such as the Master Street Plan," said Nicci Tiner with Garver Engineering.
At A Glance (w/logo)
Traffic Study
The Bentonville City Wide Traffic Study report recommends 29 projects in the city. They are divided into short-term, mid-term, long-term and future projects. The list isn’t organized by priority.
Short-Term Projects
• North Walton and Tiger boulevards and Northwest 12th Street intersection
• North/South Walton Boulevard and West Central Avenue intersection
• Southeast Walton Boulevard and Medical Center Parkway intersection
• John DeShields Boulevard/Museum Way and Northeast J Street intersection
• East Central Avenue and Northeast/Southeast J Street intersection
• Southwest Second Street and Elm Tree Road intersection
• Southeast 14th and Southeast Phyllis streets intersection
• Southeast 28th and Southeast J Street intersection
• Southeast 28th Street and Medical Center Parkway intersection
Mid-Term Projects
• Northwest Fifth Street corridor project with North Walton Boulevard and Wal-Mart Drive intersection project and Northwest Fifth Street at Bella Vista Road intersection project
• Southwest Second Street corridor with Southwest Second Street at Elm Tree Road intersection
• Southwest 10th Street corridor with South Walton Boulevard at Redbud Street intersection and Southwest 10th Street at Southwest A Street intersection
• Southeast/Southwest 14th Street corridor project with Southeast 14th Street at Southeast Phyllis Street intersection
• Southeast/Southwest 28th Street corridor project with Southeast 28th Street at Southeast J Street intersection and Southeast 28th Street at Medical Parkway intersection
• Northeast/Northwest J Street corridor with East Central Avenue at Northeast/Southeast J Street intersection
• East Central Avenue corridor
• West Central Avenue corridor with North/South Walton Boulevard at West Central Avenue intersection
• Tiger Boulevard at Bella Vista Road intersection
• North/South Walton Boulevard corridor with Southeast Walton Boulevard at Medical Center Parkway intersection
Long-Term Projects
• Southeast/Southwest 14th Street corridor
• North/South Walton Boulevard corridor
Future projects, to be done between 15-20 years:
• Northwest A Street corridor
• Southwest A Street corridor
• East Battlefield Boulevard corridor
• Been Road corridor
• Bright Road corridor
• Bella Vista Road corridor
• Moberly Lane corridor
• Tiger Boulevard
Source: City Of Bentonville
Garver did the study, and Tiner recently reported the results to the Planning Commission and City Council.
The report lists nine projects to be done within five years, 10 to be done in five to 10 years, two to be done in 10 to 15 years and eight to be looked at in 15 to 20 years.
The nine short-term projects were all based on intersections. Fourteen of the city's 72 intersections with traffic data were chosen for in-depth evaluation that included projected traffic volume over 20 years, collision data with what types of collision as well as the number of them and what would be the most beneficial and cost-effective improvements.
"The intersection improvements are throughout the entire city," Tiner said.
Tiner highlighted the intersection at Southeast 14th and Southeast Phyllis streets as one with a large number of collisions. Most are rear-end crashes.
"The city has signage that says no left turns, but people still do it," she said.
The intersection at John DeShields Boulevard, Museum Way and Northeast J Street doesn't have light signals and has seen a volume increase since 2011, the same year Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened, Tiner said.
A short-term improvement could be a single-lane roundabout with a right turn bypass lane northbound, she said.
For intersections with signals, some improvement suggestions include adding lanes and creating better coordination between the lights, Tiner said.
Tiner used the intersection at North Walton and Tiger boulevards as an example of a good place to add turn lanes. Both have one lane in each direction, and Tiner explained the study's recommendation of adding left turn lanes as well as right turn lanes.
In a time of limited resources, improving functionality of intersections can be cost-effective as it's cheaper than widening streets, said Troy Galloway, director of community development.
"If you can correct intersection deficiencies, you can extend the life of those lanes in many cases five to 15 to 20 years," he said.
There was no analysis of the intersections on Northwest/Northeast Eighth Street or on Southwest Airport Regional Boulevard since there are projects either planned or under way on those streets, Tiner said.
"Hopefully everything that's being done in those projects will provide the appropriate capacity," she said.
Nineteen corridor projects were spread out in the mid-term, long-term projects in the study. Several indicators were used in analyzing the corridors and developing recommendations, including functional classification, previous studies, growth and travel speeds, according to study.
Tiner used the suggested extensions of Northwest Fifth Street to North Walton Boulevard and Southwest 10th Street to South Walton Boulevard as examples of corridor projects. Those extensions could relieve congestion in other corridors, such as Southwest/Southeast Eighth Street, she said.
The only two long-term projects the study includes is widening Southeast/Southwest 14th Street from South Walton Boulevard to Moberly Lane and widening North/South Walton Boulevard from West Central Avenue to Southeast J Street.
The study includes eight projects Tiner suggested should be evaluated in 10 years as they are trending to need improvement in 15 to 20 years, but the trend could change, she said.
Mike Churchwell, transportation engineer, said the study didn't reveal anything surprising, but verified situations the Transportation Department knew about.
"We saw some things that caught our attention, but nothing that was like a big 'wow,'" he said. "Nothing that we didn't already feel the pain of."
Rhonda Johnson, a former resident, said traffic was a challenge when she and her family lived in the Woods Creek subdivision for four years.
"Don't travel during rush hour, ever," she said Friday speaking over a warm beverage at Kennedy Coffee at the intersection of Southeast Moberly Lane and Southeast 14th Street.
As a sales representative for Walmart and Sam's Club, Johnson says she schedules her meetings around peak traffic hours. She moved to Gentry about a year ago because her husband wanted to live on a farm, not because of the traffic, she said.
"Now we have no traffic," Johnson said with a laugh, adding she does miss the convenience of being close to Bentonville.
NW News on 03/01/2014