A TEMPORARY CONNECTION

Roundabout in state’s plan for Bella Vista

Map showing the location of the Proposed Bella Vista roundabout
Map showing the location of the Proposed Bella Vista roundabout

BELLA VISTA — This is the end of the road.

After heading north from the Arkansas River Valley, spanning Frog Bayou and skimming the tops of the Boston Mountains, Interstate 49 ends at Bella Vista, where drivers are shunted onto U.S. 71 and through a gantlet of stoplights.

It is there, near the confluence of those two roads and what will be the Bella Vista bypass, that the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department plans to build a temporary fivepronged roundabout.

And that has some folks concerned.

Rumors have circulated on Facebook that the proposed roundabout is permanent and would be in the middle of I-49.

Neither of those rumors is true, said Danny Straessle, a spokesman for the Highway Department.

Officially known as “the Bella Vista interim modified connector,” the two-lane roundabout will be adjacent to I-49, he said. It will help motorists navigate an interchange between Bentonville and Bella Vista until the Bella Vista bypass is completed — whenever that is.

As soon as Missouri gets the money together to complete its 6-mile portion of the Bella Vista bypass, Arkansas will “rip out” the roundabout and replace it with “a single-point urban interchange,” said Straessle. At that time, Arkansas will also work to complete its portion of the bypass to the Missouri line.

Arkansas’ part of the fourlane Bella Vista bypass will be 14.3 miles and will cost $188 million to construct, said Steve Lawrence, an engineer for the Highway Department. Work has already begun, and a 5.4-mile, two-lane segment is open to traffic.

The bypass will be part of the larger I-49. Plans have been in the works for 30 years for a 1,700-mile interstate corridor that would connect the Gulf of Mexico with Canada and run through western Arkansas.

Currently, I-49 in Arkansas stretches from Alma north about 80 miles to Bella Vista. In southwest Arkansas, a portion of I-49 is complete from Texarkana to the Louisiana line. A section of “future I-49” is complete in Fort Smith. Building I-49 through the rugged Ouachita Mountains from Fort Smith to Texarkana will take some time.

In Northwest Arkansas, the bypass would relieve large-truck traffic through Bella Vista. An average of 20,000 vehicles a day cross into Missouri at Bella Vista, and 18 percent of those are trucks, according to the Highway Department. In the center of Bella Vista, U.S. 71 carries about 38,000 vehicles a day.

In the meantime, as Arkansas waits for Missouri, the roundabout is a cheap fix at $300,000, Lawrence said. The permanent interchange at that location will cost about $42 million.

“We can’t put that in right now because it would make the traffic situation worse,” Straessle said.

He said the permanent interchange will give preference to the bypass and will remove the seamless transition from U.S. 71 onto I-49. Because the bypass isn’t completed to Missouri, it’s not yet channeling “through” traffic off U.S. 71 in Bella Vista.

Funding for the roundabout is coming from a half-percent sales tax approved by voters in 2012. Straessle said it will be the sixth roundabout on an Arkansas highway. The others are in Conway and North Little Rock.

Misinformation about the roundabout prompted the Highway Department to hold two meetings to inform the public and educate drivers on how to navigate it. It was the first time the department has had educational meetings about a roundabout, said Straessle.

The roundabout will allow motorists access to an 11.8-mile, two-lane section of the bypass, which is also known as Arkansas 549, Straessle told about 100 people Nov. 14 at Bethel Baptist Church in Bentonville.

The roundabout and a 6.4-mile, two-lane section currently under construction should be complete in the spring, he said. Lawrence said that section of Arkansas 549 will probably see 4,000 to 7,000 vehicles a day after it opens.

“These are functional interchanges that move traffic in an area very seamlessly and very efficiently,” Straessle said. “So why a roundabout? We wanted to make the usable portion of the Bella Vista bypass available to you as soon as possible.”

If a driver misses a turn, he can circle the roundabout and try again, said Straessle. A four-minute animated video that the Highway Department posted at vimeo.com/85181840 shows vehicles moving smoothly through the roundabout and making various connections.

Besides Highway Department employees, some city officials and police officers participated in the meetings in Bentonville on Nov. 14 and in Bella Vista on Tuesday.

Bentonville police officer Ken Trimberger said some motorists in Bella Vista would have more trouble negotiating the roundabout.

“I can tell you one problem will be elderly citizens coming out of Bella Vista who are going to have to adhere to the schematics of this design,” he told the crowd Monday.

Chris Suneson, Bella Vista’s director of community development services, wasn’t at Monday’s meeting, but when asked about elderly drivers after Tuesday’s meeting, Suneson didn’t exactly agree with Trimberger.

“Change is difficult for everybody,” said Suneson. “This is going to be difficult for every driver regardless of age. That’s a loaded question, by the way.”

Originally built as a retirement community, Bella Vista’s demographics have been changing, said Suneson. About half of the city’s residents are young, he said. Suneson said the only roundabout he has driven through is a one-lane version near Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Bella Vista Mayor Peter Christie said he agrees with Suneson. The mayor said only 27 percent of Bella Vista’s population is over age 65.

“It’s probably going to be a challenge for some people,” said Christie. “Change is always difficult. … Roundabouts can be confusing at first. I applaud the state for having these meetings. … I think if they had not done that, we would probably be facing a lot of problems, but it’s going to be a challenge.”

If anyone at last week’s meetings was concerned about how to drive through the roundabout, he didn’t let on.

Instead, people wanted to know if the roundabout would alleviate traffic congestion at the intersection.

It won’t, said Straessle.

“The purpose is to provide connectivity to the highways,” he told about 150 people Tuesday night. “It’s not to solve the traffic issues we see in the Highway 71 corridor.”

There are no traffic signals or stop signs in the roundabout plans. Traffic will move through counterclockwise.

The presentations at both meetings began with a video from the Regional Municipality of Peel, Ontario, in which a Canadian police officer explains roundabouts.

The rules are pretty simple:

Slow down.

Choose a lane.

Yield.

Yielding should be done before entering the roundabout. “One of the most important concepts of the roundabout is the yield principle,” said the Canadian police officer. The No. 1 “common error,” he said, is “failure to yield.”

According to the video, “entering without sufficient space will cause an unsafe condition.”

Another important rule: “Never change lanes while inside the roundabout.”

Regarding lane changing, Straessle said: “If you want to go straight or right, you stay in the right lane. If you want to go straight or left, you stay in the left lane. It’s as simple as that. … The big no-no in a roundabout is you cannot change lanes once you get there, so you have to commit to a lane before you get to the roundabout.”

The design speed of the proposed roundabout is 40 mph, but the speed limit on the roundabout will likely be less than that, said Straessle. He said the roundabout is also designed to accommodate large trucks.

Lawrence said accidents on roundabouts tend to be from angles, so less damage is done than in T-bone accidents at intersections.

“People don’t get hurt as bad,” he said.

Based on comments on a Facebook page called Living in Bella Vista, Arkansas, the meetings went well.

“We attended the AHTD presentation tonight on the modified connector,” Gina Allen wrote Nov. 14. “It will require drivers to pick the correct lane, yield to traffic in the circle and be patient and courteous.”

“Is that all????” responded Linda Guthrie. “Do they not realize we can only handle one directive at a time!!!”

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