FAYETTEVILLE -- Residents got a chance to have a say Tuesday on the city's proposal to redesign a narrow, congested half-mile stretch of College Avenue between Maple and North streets in Fayetteville.
Members of the public reviewed an initial concept for the street, which accommodates about 27,000 cars daily, during an open house at city hall.
On the Web: Be Heard
It’s not too late to give your views or make suggestions for proposed improvements to College Avenue, between Maple and North streets. Maps, concept drawings and survey forms will be posted and remain available online at Fayetteville’s website: www.fayetteville-ar….
Source: Staff Report
Lori Osborne wanted to see what the changes would mean to property she and husband Ken own where he has a law office. The project, as designed, would take about eight to 10 feet of the property along the street and an 80-year-old rock wall along the street to make room for wider sidewalks.
"My main question was how much property we'd lose and whether there'll still be a retaining wall," Osborne said. "I do have mixed emotions about losing property and the wall but it would improve the neighborhood."
Others attending gave a lot of attention to the area between Trenton and Rebecca Street, including a proposed crosswalk, which proved extremely popular. Heather Daniel lives on Rebecca, east of College, and said it's hard to find a safe place to cross the four-lanes of traffic without going to Maple Street or North Street.
"We walk in our neighborhood a lot and would like to be able to get to Wilson Park," Daniel said. "It doesn't seem to seem to help the bicyclists much but it does help pedestrians. I'd like to see it actually expanded some."
The concept includes four 11-foot traffic lanes, 10-foot-wide sidewalks on either side of the street along with streetlights and possibly tree wells.
A drawback is the area is narrow and lined with several steep retaining walls and buildings close to the street so it's difficult and expensive to widen the street and sidewalks along the corridor.
A retaining wall on the east side of College, across from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, likely will come down. Casey said sections of a small retaining wall on College's west side, near Prospect Street, can be removed, but a larger wall in front of the Fayetteville Chiropractic Orthopedic & Sports Injury Clinic, 715 N. College Ave., will probably have to stay put, making the sidewalk narrower in some spots.
Matt Casey, engineering design manager, said the city will work with AEP-Southwestern Electric Power to bury power lines.
The College Avenue work will extend improvements made between Maple and Rock streets in 2008 and 2009 and should be similar in appearance, officials said. That work cost about $1.8 million, according to city records.
Terry Gulley, Transportation Services director, has estimated construction will cost about $2 million. The project will be paid for through a sales-tax-backed bond program voters approved in 2006.
Casey said city engineers expect to redesign the six-block section and hope to have all easement acquisition done by end of the year so the Transportation Division could begin construction early next year on the east side of the street, if all goes well. Construction will likely take all of 2016.
City Engineer Chris Brown has said the city wants to eventually extend College Avenue improvements south to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and north past Northwest Arkansas Mall.
NW News on 08/12/2015