FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department has completed 203 projects covering 309.1 miles and costing about $471 million in Benton and Washington counties since 2005, according to the agency.
But there’s more to come.
Right now, 25 projects covering 53 miles are under construction at an estimated cost of $294.6 million. Another 68 projects covering 141.7 miles are scheduled between now and 2022, said Chad Adams, engineer for the department’s District 4, which runs from Washington to Scott counties in west Arkansas. The estimated cost of those projects is $578.2 million.
Most of the work is along the Interstate 49 corridor, primarily widening the highway to three lanes in each direction and improving interchanges, Adams said. Since 2005, 11 projects covering 7.4 miles and costing $100 million have been completed in that area alone. Four projects on 13.6 miles of the interstate are under construction at an estimated cost of $109 million.
Ten more projects are planned along I-49, covering 16 miles of interstate and costing an estimated $302 million, Adams said.
Highway officials have reviewed and approved bids on two of those projects worth $66.4 million. Work on the two projects is scheduled to begin later this summer and last through early 2019.
The larger project will widen a 5.1-mile section between Arkansas 264 and New Hope Road from four lanes to six. The second will widen a 3.4-mile section between Southeast 14th Street and Central Avenue in Bentonville.
Money to pay for the construction is coming from interstate rehabilitation bonds, a half-percent sales tax, new federal highway money and state and local matches, said Dick Trammel, chairman of the Arkansas Highway Commission. All the I-49 work should be completed or well under way by 2020, according to the commission.
Arkansas voters in 2011 approved the Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicle Bonds program for interstate repairs. Voters in 2012 approved a 10-year, half-percent sales tax for new highway construction. The sales tax raises about $230 million annually for the Highway Department’s $1.8 billion Connecting Arkansas Program.
“You [voters] passed the halfcent sales taxes twice,” Trammel told the Northwest Arkansas Senior Democrats during a recent presentation. “If you hadn’t stepped up and passed that, you wouldn’t see any of this going on on I-49 today.”
FAYETTEVILLE WORK
One of the biggest projects remaining on I-49 is widening and reconfiguring the interchange where Arkansas 112 and the Fulbright Expressway converge with the interstate in northwest Fayetteville. The Highway Commission is accepting bids and is expected to award the contract on Aug. 10.
The project will shift the south lanes of I-49 to the east so they are parallel with the existing north lanes.
In addition to six lanes of interstate — three in each direction through the interchange — the project aims to eliminate difficult merging situations at either end of the interchange.
Motorists traveling west on the Fulbright Expressway who want to exit onto Arkansas 112 have to weave through south I-49 mainline traffic to get over into the right lane to exit. Traffic from Arkansas 112 heading to Fulbright has to enter the main lanes of I-49 north traffic before exiting. The project will eliminate that weaving movement.
A third lane in each direction should also reduce rushhour backups on I-49 and improve north-south traffic flow, according to Chris Brown, Fayetteville’s city engineer.
The project is estimated to cost about $55 million. Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2017 and could take up to four years.
“Obviously, traffic volumes are very high in that area. We have a lot of different weaving movements through the lanes going north and going south, and this project will separate some of those movements,” said Tim Conklin, a senior planner with the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission.
“So, as you use 112 and the Fulbright Expressway, you’ll have an easier time accessing the business district of Fayetteville or if you’re going north to Springdale, Rogers or Bentonville,” he said.
The project also will help the Arkansas 112 corridor by widening the Garland Avenue overpass so the road can be widened north to Van Asche. There will be room for a sidewalk and buffer area, eliminating the roadblock for pedestrians and bicyclists to cross I-49.
Widening the remaining two-lane portion of Garland Avenue/Arkansas 112 from Poplar Street to Van Asche Drive is scheduled for 2018. The project would widen 1.6 miles of the road on either side of I-49 at an estimated cost of $6.4 million.
Garland has been widened to four lanes from Maple Street on the University of Arkansas campus to Agri Park. Van Asche connects with Arkansas 112 just north of I-49.
The move will provide more access to the retail area around the Northwest Arkansas Mall and planned residential and commercial development along Van Asche.
THE BYPASSES
Work is continuing on the 14-mile Bella Vista Bypass even though Missouri highway officials say they don’t have the money needed for their 2.5-mile section to link up with the new road at the state line.
Adams said 5.4 miles of the bypass have been completed at a cost of $34 million. Another 6.4 miles are under construction at an estimated cost of $53 million. The remaining 5.4 miles are expected to cost another $69 million.
A 2-mile, two-lane section between Arkansas 72 North and Benton County 34 near Hiwasse opened last year. A section between Arkansas 72 South and Arkansas 72 North was finished in 2014.
Work is ongoing from I-49 in north Bentonville westward. A traffic circle and other interchange improvements are planned in north Bentonville as part of the project. The road will be part of I-49 when completed.
Work on the U.S. 412 Northern Bypass around Springdale between Arkansas 112 and I-49 started in April 2015 and is expected to be completed in 2019. The $100.6 million project was the Highway Department’s biggest contract awarded in 2014 — more than $2 million more expensive than the project to replace the Broadway Bridge over the Arkansas River between Little Rock and North Little Rock.
The bypass is intended to relieve congestion through Springdale on Sunset Boulevard, South Thompson Street and Robinson Avenue, the city’s main east-west route, which is designated U.S. 412. Traffic studies say about 25,000 vehicles a day travel the route, according to highway officials.
The four-mile section will provide a jumping-off point for a planned limited access highway to the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport.
The new road will curve back to the south and connect to U.S. 412 on the west side of Springdale near Tontitown.
The eastern half of the bypass should eventually connect to U.S. 412 near Sonora, but that part of the project has no funding.