FAYETTEVILLE — City Council members are set to decide next week whether to make a new stretch of Rupple Road a two-lane street or a four-lane boulevard.
Rupple will be extended about 1½ miles from where it ends at Owl Creek School to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard regardless of next week's decision.
Meeting Information
Fayetteville City Council
When: 6 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Room 219, City Administration Building, 113 W. Mountain St.
On the Agenda: A resolution approving street cross-sections for a new stretch of Rupple Road between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Wedington Drive.
The council's choice is more about whether to follow through with longstanding plans for Rupple Road or scale them back to save money.
The street connection will give west Fayetteville residents a new route to get to Walmart, Lowe's and other businesses on the west side of Interstate 540. It could also prompt development on several large tracts of open field.
A wider Rupple Road, with landscaped medians, is part of Mayor Lioneld Jordan's plan for a "box" of four-lane boulevards around the perimeter of the city. Jordan envisions Rupple as a Crossover Road for the west side of town.
"We have talked about it for 10 years," Jordan, former chairman of the council's Street Committee, said Tuesday. "I just think we need to build it right the first time and be done with it."
Alderman Matthew Petty, committee chairman, said he's all for extending Rupple Road. But building two lanes now -- as opposed to four -- would free up about $1.7 million.
"That's $1.7 million of savings we could spend on other projects," Petty said.
He pointed to a traffic study, completed in February by Jacobs Engineering, predicting four lanes won't be needed on Rupple Road for at least another 10 or 15 years, depending on development patterns.
That estimate is based on the assumption land south of Owl Creek School will develop at the same density as row houses across the street from the Boys & Girls Club of Fayetteville -- a much higher density than most of the subdivisions in west Fayetteville.
Petty said more lanes could be added if and when traffic warrants them.
"Let's let the facts and careful analysis guide us in how and when to build something," he said.
City Engineer Chris Brown acknowledged four lanes may not be needed immediately. But it will cost a lot more than $1.7 million to come back and add lanes in another 10 or 15 years.
The $10 million city officials budgeted for Rupple Road improvements in the Transportation Improvement Bond Program voters approved in 2006 is enough to pay for a full, four-lane cross-section between King Boulevard and Wedington Drive, Brown said.
Alderwoman Rhonda Adams said it's not just about money either. "It's very disruptive to make improvements after development has gone in," Adams said.
Alan Long, the council's other Ward 4 representative, said he's on board with building a four-lane street.
Plans for a four-lane boulevard show a 5-foot sidewalk on the east side of Rupple with a 12-foot trail on the west side of the street. The new section of Rupple will connect to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard near the Ozark Mountain Smokehouse, making a future trail connection with Mount Kessler land the city recently acquired possible.
Three traffic roundabouts are also planned along the new stretch of road.
Brown said he expects Rupple Road construction between King Boulevard and Persimmon Street to begin in early 2015 and wrap up by the end of next year. The section between Persimmon and Wedington Drive will likely get under way in late 2015, and realigning Rupple at its intersection with Mount Comfort Road should begin sometime in 2016, Brown said.
Mayor Jordan also wants to widen Rupple Road north of Mount Comfort Road, past the curve where it becomes Howard Nickell Road, but the city doesn't have money in place for that work.
NW News on 03/12/2014