FAYETTEVILLE -- Work on Bella Vista and U.S. 412 bypass projects is on schedule or ahead of schedule thanks to good weather, state highway officials said.
"We've had quite a bit of rain, but they've still been able to work quite a bit," said Mitchell Archer, District 9 construction engineer. "We're working out our issues as we go through."
The 14-mile Bella Vista Bypass is under construction even though Missouri highway officials said they don't have the money to link up with the new road at the state line, as has long been the plan.
Work is ongoing from Interstate 49 in north Bentonville, including a traffic circle and other interchange improvements. The road will be part of I-49 when completed. Base and concrete paving are in place from Arkansas 72 on the west to past Pumpkin Hollow Road to the east.
"Realistically, we're looking at right after the first of the year before we'll actually be opening the roundabout and sending traffic down the new bypass," Archer said. "There's going to be a lot of the work that will be completed, but once you complete that bulk work, there's a lot of cleanup, there's a lot of shoulder gravel to put on, you have to pave the shoulders with asphalt."
The Bella Vista Bypass is designed to route traffic around the western edge of Bella Vista near I-49's exit 93, rejoining I-49 near Pineville, Mo. The road is expected to take as many as 6,000 cars a day off U.S. 71 through Bella Vista.
Archer said the department measures progress by comparing the percentage of time allotted for a job to the percentage of the job completed. Bella Vista Bypass jobs were allotted 257 working days, and crews have worked 236 days. Archer said the contractor has used more than 90 percent of its time, but only 78 percent of its budgeted money. The money side is catching up pretty quickly because crews are doing some of the more high-dollar work now, Archer said.
The traffic circle cannot be opened until the road is completed to the Arkansas 72 interchange, Archer said.
Getting the road connected to I-49 in Missouri still requires Arkansas to build a 2.5-mile section to the state line and Missouri to build a section from the state line to just south of Pineville.
Darin Hamelink, area engineer for the Missouri Department of Transportation, told regional planners earlier this year that $20 million is budgeted in 2020 for construction of the 4.81-mile project, but another $30 million is needed to finish the road.
All rights of way have been acquired, Hamelink said. He said the environmental impact statement needs to be done. Preliminary design work is completed, but $3 million must be allocated to finish the plans, he said.
At one time, Missouri officials said they had money in hand to start the project when Arkansas was ready. Arkansas wasn't ready at that point, and Missouri switched the money to other projects. Hamelink said Missouri is now dealing with a shortage of highway money.
"I don't think we'll ever see construction quit on the Bella Vista Bypass until it's four lanes and finished," said Dick Trammel, chairman of the Arkansas Highway Commission. "It's not a road to nowhere. The part that's finished and open, it's being used pretty heavily."
To the south, 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 project was the most expensive job in Highway and Transportation Department history when it was let at just more than $100 million.
Contractors last week were at 289 of 650 working days, putting them at 44.5 percent of the time allotted for the job. They are at 51.7 percent of the work done, so they are ahead of schedule at this point, Archer said.
The 412 Northern 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.
"You can see the work on the two flyover bridges that's going on in the median of I-49. That work is progressing," Archer said. "The tie-in at Arkansas 112 is progressing."
The work includes widening Arkansas 112.
"We probably won't see any traffic shifts over onto the new bridge until about the end of the year, but we are shifting traffic to allow for staged construction of the interchange," Archer said.
The new bridge to carry Arkansas 112 over the bypass is built, but it needs the parapet walls placed, Archer said.
The 4-mile section will provide a jumping-off point for a planned limited access highway to the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport.
The bypass will curve back 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, east of Springdale, but that part of the project is not funded.
State Desk on 09/05/2016