Tired of those orange barrels up and down Interstate 49? Ready for a break from the white-knuckle experience of driving between a concrete barrier and a semitrailer? Does it seem like traffic congestion is worse despite the improvements already completed?
Have patience, area leaders and experts say.
Those barrels represent millions of dollars into the local economy now and millions more in the future. The average driver can expect to save time and money when the walls come down. And all that work should make a dent in the wall-to-wall traffic created by the area's explosive growth -- at least for a while.
"From everybody's wallet perspective, you probably don't want to catch up," said David Schrank, researcher with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. "If you get to the point where everyone can just drive around freely, it could mean your area isn't growing any more."
The I-49 corridor in Benton and Washington counties has 20 projects, including interchange improvements and widening, either recently completed, in progress or planned along its 26 miles. The first phase started in 2010, and the estimated end-in-sight is sometime in 2020.
Taxpayers will foot the $410 million bill with the money coming from federal highway funding, a state bond issue and sales tax and local tax money.
Dick Trammel, chairman of the Arkansas Highway Commission, said the state didn't know how it would pay for I-49 improvements five years ago, but the project from Fayetteville to the Bella Vista Bypass is now funded.
Cities are also trying to ease the traffic pain by improving other roads winding through the region. New and expanded roads also open the door for economic growth.
Not everyone agrees building additional and wider roads is the best use of transportation dollars. Stephen Luoni, director and principal designer of the University of Arkansas Community Design Center, said pouring millions into road construction can be counter-productive.
"The modeling is pretty conclusive; the more road capacity you build, the more traffic you invite," he said.
He said areas such as Northwest Arkansas that have a limited number of main routes people want to take would benefit greatly from mass transit programs such as rail.
A transit report the center penned for Fayetteville showed Northwest Arkansas households spent more on transportation than they did on housing in 2000. The Center for Neighborhood Technologies reports a typical area household spent 29 percent of its annual income on transportation; the national average was 19 percent.
Chris Brown, Fayetteville city engineer, said sometimes the disadvantage outweighs the need.
"When you have cars backing up into the main lanes because the intersections are overloaded, you really can't argue that you don't need more capacity," he said. "When you can't get on the interstate in the morning, or if it's problematic, there is really only one solution."
Congestion
Traffic congestion takes a bite out of drivers' wallets as much as it eats away at their patience.
Congestion costs the region's economy $167 million annually, and local drivers about $520 each year, according to the Urban Mobility Report produced by the Texas A&M institute. Area drivers idle, on average, 24 hours a year in traffic. The national average of lost time is 42 hours.
But bad congestion is in the eye of the driver, and traffic in Northwest Arkansas rates better than most of the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas, Schrank said.
Northwest Arkansas' rates are in line with areas of comparable size. The Census Bureau listed the area's population at 501,653 as of July 2014. Other metropolitan areas with populations between 500,000 and 550,000 and their congestion rates include: Santa Rosa, Calif., 19 hours and $407; Portland, Maine, 14 hours and $332; Modesto, Calif., 18 hours and $421; and Lancaster, Pa., 18 hours and $441.
Luoni said commuting also impacts a traveler's health and mood. A 2012 study published in the Journal of Urban Health found that spending an hour every day commuting to and from work means the average person gets 31 percent less time for sleep, 16 percent less time for exercise and 6 percent less time to eat with family.
More residents mean more daily commuters and more cars. Northwest Arkansas' population grew about 2 percent, or 9,278 residents, between July 2013 and July 2014, according to the Census Bureau. The Arkansas Office of Motor Vehicles reports registrations increased 17 percent in Benton and Washington counties between 2013 and 2014, adding nearly 60,000 vehicles. There were 405,213 passenger vehicles and pickups registered in the two counties last year.
Schrank said it's not unusual for economic growth to happen faster than road improvements, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
"It's just one of those things you have to take some of the bad with the good," he said. "Most chambers of commerce would say they would rather have traffic congestion than the other side of the coin."
The region's planners hope the widening of Interstate 49 and improving its interchanges will alleviate congestion.
I-49 progress
Watching work being completed along the I-49 corridor is like watching a puzzle being pieced together. Sections of the freeway are opening up a third lane in each direction, but the work is not always linked.
"We hammer it out piece by piece," said Danny Straessle, spokesman for the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department. "It's like putting together a toy train track: You connect all the pieces, and pretty soon you have a highway."
The first section with a third lane in southern Fayetteville from Martin Luther King Boulevard to Wedington Drive opened in 2012. The stretch between Wagon Wheel Road in Springdale to Monroe Avenue in Lowell was finished last year.
Expansion from New Hope Road in Rogers to 14th Street in Bentonville was finished a few months ago, but the new lanes won't open for traffic until the interchange at Southeast Walton Boulevard is finished.
Straessle said it's difficult to start a major road project at one end and work all the way to the other. Several factors play into the construction timeline, including what sections will have the most immediate impact, he said.
"The impact on the cross streets also has a lot to do with the timing," Straessle said.
Traffic could come to a standstill if too many interchanges are affected at the same time, he said. Nearly all the interchanges in Benton and Washington counties are seeing improvements.
Tim Conklin, transportation programs manager for the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission, said the widening should help but that it doesn't even meet the recommendations made in a 2006 study. That report said most of the interstate should be widened to eight lanes.
"We've been playing catch up for years," he said.
Immediate impact
Economic development leaders see dollar signs when they see orange barrels.
Kathy Deck, director of the Center for Business and Economic Development at the University of Arkansas, said construction projects provide jobs to local workers.
"You always need new projects coming on board to keep your good workers around," she said. Those jobs range from engineering to paving.
Koss Construction Co. of Topeka, Kan., plans to put at least 150 people to work next month after it starts an 18-month project maintaining about 28 miles of I-49 from south Fayetteville into Crawford County. The Highway Department accepted Koss' $22.2 million bid.
Robert Kennedy, Koss construction operations manager, said some local subcontractors will do a portion of the work and others will travel to the region. Some of the out-of-town construction workers have travel trailers and stay at RV parks, while others opt for a hotel, he said.
"It definitely has an impact on local merchants," Kennedy said. "People eat at restaurants, service and fill up their cars and go shopping. Everything we can do local, we do local."
There were 7,816 construction workers in Benton and Washington counties in 2014, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number has steadily grown since dropping to 6,991 in 2011. Construction employment in the two-county area peaked at 11,162 in 2006.
Lasting effects
Once the work is done, it opens up new areas for commerce, improves the quality of life for residents, helps recruit new businesses and encourages travelers to pass through the region, according to area leaders.
"The interstate can bring in new businesses that need or want access to the interstate," Schrank said.
Schrank said the economic development generated by creating a thoroughfare extends well beyond gas stations and restaurants.
The 2006 opening of the Pinnacle Hills Promenade in Rogers is just one example of the growth at the I-49 exit at West Pauline Whitaker Parkway. The Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion, a 10-story office building, and many other professional and retail options now dot the area.
A Walmart Neighborhood Market and Casey's General Store opened on the east side of the Don Tyson Interchange in Springdale. The city paid most of the $45 million for the interchange. Arkansas Children's Hospital plans to build a facility on the west side, near Arvest Ballpark.
Patsy Christie, Springdale planning director, said a 2012 voter-approved $71 million bond issue helped make the interchange a reality. Don Tyson Parkway also is being widened, so it will be four lanes all the way from Thompson Street to I-49, opening up more growth opportunities, Christie said.
"When we started talking about the project, no one was in favor of it, but once we put it in, everyone asked why we hadn't done it sooner," she said. "The new interchange created a whole new area for development."
Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan said economic development revolves around the infrastructure invested in the city. Last year's opening of an access point to the Fulbright Expressway helped the city land Whole Foods, set to open next spring, Jordan said.
"They said they would not have come in without it," he said.
The project was funded through a $65.9 million bond program approved by Fayetteville voters in 2006.
City projects
Jordan has talked for years about creating a box around the city that would allow drivers to easily get from one side to the other.
The north side access was finished earlier this year with the completion of Van Ashe Drive. The road allows a direct route from the Northwest Arkansas Mall to Arkansas 112 by Sam's Club. The road also provides economic development options, he said.
"We took that land from being a cow pasture to being a very valuable piece of property," he said.
The $4.5 million cost for the Van Ashe Drive construction could create a $185 million return on investment, Jordan said developers have indicated. The City Council rezoned about 200 acres Dec. 15 to central and thoroughfare commercial for the area.
Nathan Becknell, Rogers city engineer, said Walnut Street will be widened to five lanes from Eighth Street to Dixieland Road in the northeast section of Rogers. The project will be a challenge because the city needs to keep the commercial east-west road open throughout construction.
The Highway Department is widening the road before it is declassified from a state highway to a city street as part of an agreement. Becknell said the city gets complaints about Walnut Street and has to refer them to the Highway Department.
"This gives the city the ability to control maintenance on the road. We can manage calls better," he said.
Springdale is working to create another north-south corridor through the extension and widening of 56th Street, Christie said. She said the work will build off the Don Tyson Parkway interchange, which opened in July 2014, and will eventually extend to Wagon Wheel Road.
The city spent a little more than $8 million on 56th Street from Watkins Avenue, just north of Arvest Ballpark, to U.S. 412, said Wyman Morgan, Springdale's director of finance and administration. The portions from Don Tyson Parkway to Watkins Avenue and from U.S. 412 to Bleaux Avenue, north of Ozark Center Point Place, will cost about $7.3 million, he said. The rest is unfunded.
NW News on 12/27/2015