FAYETTEVILLE -- A good showing at a Friday bid opening means construction will likely begin soon on a 1.5-mile extension to Rupple Road on the west side of town.
Four companies bid on the project, which city engineers estimated at $7.2 million.
By the Numbers
The Fayetteville Purchasing Division opened four bids Friday for Rupple Road construction between Persimmon Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. City engineers estimated the project at $7.2 million.
• Sweetser Construction: $7.31 million
• Kolb Grading: $7.58 million
• Nabholz Construction: $7.66 million
• Dean Crowder Construction: $7.97 million
Source: Staff Report
Fayetteville-based Sweetser Construction was the apparent low bidder at about $7.3 million.
While the bid is about $100,000 more than city officials had hoped to spend, Mayor Lioneld Jordan said the numbers are workable.
"I'm very encouraged about the bids today," he added.
The City Council is scheduled to consider awarding a construction contract to Sweetser on Aug. 18. The project will be paid for through a $65.9 million, sales-tax-backed bond program voters approved in 2006.
City officials for years have envisioned a four-lane boulevard from where Rupple Road ends just south of Persimmon Street, near Owl Creek School, to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
The new stretch of street will connect to King Boulevard, also known as Arkansas 62, near the former Ozark Mountain Smokehouse building.
It will give drivers another way to get from Wedington Drive to Walmart, Lowe's and other west Fayetteville businesses without having to access Interstate 49. Walkers, runners and cyclists will eventually be able to use a 12-foot-wide trail on the west side of the street to get to Mount Kessler and a regional park that's under construction.
Wide swaths of pasture land on either side of the Rupple Road extension are expected to rapidly develop once the street is finished.
"It will help with traffic flow, it encourages alternative transportation, and it's going to be an economic corridor for this city," Jordan said.
Designs for the Rupple Road extension by Fayetteville-based Jorgensen & Associates show a four-lane boulevard with a landscaped center median.
In addition to the 12-foot-wide shared-use trail, a 5-foot-wide sidewalk is planned along the east side of the street. Both pedestrian paths will be separated from lanes of vehicular traffic by 10 feet of green space.
The designs also include three roundabouts, two of which will only be tied into new east-west streets once development occurs. The southernmost roundabout is shown as a four-way intersection with connections to Catalpa Drive in the Magnolia Crossing subdivision and Alberta Street in the Walnut Crossing neighborhood.
City Council members could opt to remove the Catalpa Drive and Alberta Street connections to save money, according to Matt Casey, Fayetteville engineering design manager.
Sweetser Construction estimated the connections at $543,000 combined.
Casey said, if a contract is approved Aug. 18, construction will likely begin in late September or early October.
Two other phases of Rupple Road improvement are planned apart from the 1.5-mile extension.
An existing stretch of road between Persimmon Street and Wedington Drive, near the Boys & Girls Club of Fayetteville, is set to be widened to four lanes beginning in early 2016. A southbound lane could be added north of Wedington, near The Links at Fayetteville apartment complex, but the addition will only be completed if money is available.
Garver LLC was hired in February 2014 to re-design the southern end of the Rupple Road-Mount Comfort Road intersection, moving the intersection east to make a new four-way stop. Designs have been on hold for several months, however, because of an archaeological site that was found in the area.
The city and Garver are working with the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program to develop a plan for the Rupple-Mount Comfort intersection, according to a progress report from Fayetteville engineers.
The city's Street Plan shows Rupple Road eventually being extended from where it ends north of Holt Middle School. Four lanes are planned along it and Howard Nickell Road leading to an improved Van Asche Drive, but no timeline has been set for that work.
All of the connections are part of Jordan's longstanding vision for a "box" of four-lane boulevards around the perimeter of the city.
NW News on 07/25/2015