HOT SPRINGS -- A sprawling interchange at Promise Land Drive will be part of the 5.49-mile extension of the King Expressway from U.S. 70 east to the junction of Arkansas 5 and Arkansas 7, according to the proposed alignment unveiled recently during a public involvement meeting.
The ridge that Promise Land circles up and around stands astride of the projected path. The Arkansas Department of Transportation considered boring a tunnel through it but determined that excavation would be more cost-effective, estimating that more than 1 million cubic yards will have to be displaced to create a path wide enough for a four-lane highway.
Promise Land, which is north of the expressway's U.S. 70 east interchange, is an unpaved road that Garland County said is not part of its road inventory. There are about 20 addresses in the ridge area, according to the county geographic information system map.
"There will be substantial excavation for the construction of the main lanes of the bypass and the ramps connecting the bypass to Promise Land Drive, which is reflected in the width of the construction limits shown at the meeting," department spokesman Danny Straessle said. "The amount of land required is because of the amount of earth excavation that will be required."
The property needed for the interchange is part of the 190 acres of right of way the Transportation Department will claim for the extension, which will start out with two 12-foot travel lanes with 8-foot shoulders but will have enough right of way for a divided four-lane highway.
Ten owners of residential property, nine tenants, two businesses and four landlord businesses will have to be relocated, but the department said it has yet to determine how many parcels will be affected. The proposed route is subject to change, because comments that the department solicited at last month's open house at Fountain Lake School will be incorporated into the ongoing environmental assessment that is needed to proceed with the design phase.
The comment period concluded Wednesday.
"At this time, the actual right of way impacts are not known," Straessle said. "Once the design is refined to the point where we can make that determination, that information will be forwarded to our right of way division."
Straessle said land acquisition should be concluded by the fall of 2019. The proposed route intersects a cluster of addresses where the middle branch of Gulpha Creek crosses Husky Trail and another concentration of addresses farther north at Quarry Mountain Road.
The extension will terminate at a roundabout at the junction of Arkansas 5 and Arkansas 7. In addition to Promise Land Drive, an interchange is proposed for Mill Creek Road.
The proposed route is one of two that a 2005 environmental assessment of a corridor 1.25 miles wide and 5.5 miles long identified as having no significant impact on the human environment. It was one of more than 1,300 routes evaluated by the department's mapping program.
Many private water wells are in the path of the proposed route and may have to be replaced, the department said, noting that a U.S. Geological Survey study of the Thousand Dripping Springs site that filters runoff to the discharge zone for the thermal springs on the western slope of Hot Springs Mountain is ongoing. A 2009 U.S. Geological Survey study determined that thermal water found in a private well 5.5 miles east of Hot Springs National Park was unconnected to the park's namesake thermal waters.
The U.S. Geological Survey has said an exact footprint of the springs' recharge zone is unknown, but it has outlined a conceptual area comprising the higher elevations north, northeast, west and southwest of Hot Springs Mountain. The proposed route is east of that area and isn't expected to affect the recharge zone, officials have said.
The department said the extension will decrease delays and improve safety in the park by diverting through traffic east of downtown Hot Springs. It expects the extension to reduce traffic counts at the intersection of Central, Park and Whittington avenues by more than 4,000 vehicles a day by 2034.
Garland County is partnering with the state on the $60 million project, contributing $30 million from the $54.6 million bond issue voters approved during a June 2016 special election. Collection of the five-eighths percent sales tax securing the bonds began July 1.
Straessle said the state plans on letting bids for the construction phase during the 2019 State Transportation Improvement Program year, which begins in July.
State Desk on 03/15/2018