FAYETTEVILLE -- Trees finally are being planted on Crossover Road.
Workers with B&A Property Maintenance, a contractor for the city, started planting the first few London planetrees this week in the median south of Joyce Boulevard. In total, 212 trees and shrubs will be planted along the 2-mile stretch of Crossover that recently was widened between Township Street and Joyce Boulevard.
Street trees
The following tree and shrub species are being planted along Crossover Road and Garland Avenue:
• Swamp white oak
• Fruitless Kentucky coffeetree
• Blackgum
• Shadblow serviceberry
• Princeton American elm
• Shademaster thornless honeylocust
• London planetree
Source: City of Fayetteville
Another 47 trees have been installed in a new median on Garland Avenue, between North Street and Melmar Avenue.
The lack of trees caused a dust-up last year after Crossover Road improvements were completed.
Former Mayor Dan Coody brought the issue to the City Council's attention, saying median trees always were supposed to be part of the project. The $15.4 million project was financed using transportation bonds voters approved in 2006.
Roughly 10-year-old conceptual designs show a 15-foot-wide median on Crossover -- with trees. The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department was supposed to leave a grassy median, and it was the city's responsibility to come back and plant the trees, Coody said.
"I think a lot of people thought, 'Yeah, we're building a median so we're going to put trees in it,'" said Chris Brown, city engineer. "But it was just something that was never really picked up."
After complaints from Coody, the City Council agreed to go back and plant the trees.
"I'm proud that the (Mayor Lioneld) Jordan administration followed through to get these trees going," Coody said Friday. "We really appreciate (Alderwoman) Adella Gray for being the lead protagonist on this."
Compost and new topsoil are being added along Crossover, because contractors for the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department put fill back into the medians that contained clay, concrete and asphalt and wasn't suitable for plant growth. The medians will be re-sodded, and mulch will be added, too.
The city's Water and Sewer Operations Division installed water lines along Crossover, and workers will bore underneath Crossover to install an underground irrigation system.
In total, the work will cost city taxpayers more than $200,000. The project will require periodic lane closing through the first week in June.
Brown said it's unfortunate to have to close the road twice, but, he added, the project isn't costing much more than it would have if it was done when Crossover was being widened.
Brown said city officials would have liked to have completed the project during the winter when tree planting is ideal, but they ran into permitting issues with the Highway Department.
Derek Linn, an urban forester for the city, said he selected tree species with upright growth patterns, are tolerant of urban environments and don't produce fruit.
Linn said the trees will require occasional pruning in the first five to 10 years, but shouldn't need much maintenance after that.
He said 12- to 15-foot-wide medians should keep the trees from being struck by motorists.
"Studies show that having infrastructure like trees along the sides of a road naturally slows traffic," Linn added. "So, I think over time they will be a benefit, not only from the shade and the ecosystem benefits they provide, but also just for the greater community and the neighborhoods out there to help keep traffic at a reasonable speed."
Coody encouraged city officials to incorporate trees in all future street projects.
"Tranquility and beauty should be an important part of the infrastructure of Fayetteville," he said.
Brown said the northern section of Crossover Road that's under construction, from Joyce Boulevard to the city limit, will include trees in the median.
Other upcoming projects with a boulevard cross-section, including Van Asche Drive and Rupple Road, will feature the same design, he said.
NW News on 04/25/2015