Construction on corridor access not expected to start this year
Posted on Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Solutions for traffic congestion around Interstate 540 in Fayetteville near the Fulbright Expressway will likely take at least a year to design, which means construction is not likely to start until the second quarter of 2009.
There is a lot of state and federal review to go through before dirt is turned.
While Mayor Dan Coody said last week he wants to break ground on those projects this year, City Engineer Ron Petrie said the complexity of the federal and state review process makes it impossible to say if that will happen.
"I think to start construction by the end of the year is a little bit optimistic," said Chris Brown, engineering design manager for the city. "But if things go smoothly, if we get reviews back quickly, it's possible."
The area, officially called the Fayetteville Expressway Economic Development Corridor, will eventually feature roundabout and flyover solutions to reduce traffic congestion and make routes more direct.
The corridor is described as "the most congested travel corridor in the region"in the draft of an application for $ 11. 6 million in federal funding.
About 166, 000 vehicles per day travel the roadways of the corridor now, and that number is expected to increase to more than 400, 000 vehicles per day in the next 20 years.
In 2007, Fayetteville and the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department gave approvals to proceed with design and construction for two projects: a flyover linking northbound traffic from College Avenue to Mall Avenue and a roundabout connecting Millsap Road, Futrall Drive and North Hills Boulevard.
The roundabout concept is intended to eliminate the four-way stop of eastbound and westbound Futrall Drive, northbound North Hills, and the eastbound expressway off-ramp southbound. North Hills runs past Washington Regional Medical Center, from the Fulbright Expressway to Appleby Road.
Both projects are intended to help with access on and off the expressway to the adjacent medical park and the area around the Northwest Arkansas Mall and the CMN Business Park.
An engineering design contract for the two projects is under review by the highway department. The contract must be approved by the state, the Federal Highway Administration and the city before design can begin.
Brown said on Monday that he expects it will be about three months before the engineering contract is approved and design can begin.
He estimated it will take about six months for Carter & Burgess Inc. to do the design work and said there could be easily six months for reviews at the state and federal levels.
A one-year design period is probably to be expected, he said. After that, construction can begin.
By Brown's estimates, the actual construction of the roundabout and flyover will take less time than contract approval and design work.
"To do these two projects, once they start construction, I think a year would be plenty of time for each of these," he said.
Brown said it appears that the roundabout at North Hills Boulevard will be started first.
The flyover is a "little bit more complicated," he explained, because it has the additional step of getting approval to construct another ramp on the state and federal highway system. As proposed, it will provide another access point near Olive Garden restaurant.
Both projects could be under construction at the same time because they will likely be bid as two separate jobs, Brown said.
A third part of the proposed solution for the corridor is work on Van Asche Boulevard. As proposed, two lanes - or half of the boulevard - would be constructed from Gregg Avenue to Arkansas 112.
The Van Asche part of the solution is on hold.
Dan Coody said last week that because Van Asche is a local street, it is not considered part of the state highway system and the state does not want to use federal appropriation money on a local street.
He said the city is working with U. S. Rep. John Boozman to redefine the Van Asche work as an appropriate use for federal dollars.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
