Rotary hears highway plans

EUREKA SPRINGS -- Ralph Fulton of the Arkansas Highway Commission described improvements to Carroll County highways during Wednesday morning's meeting of the Eureka Springs Rotary Club.

Substantially completed, Fulton said, are two approximately one-mile passing lanes on Hwy. 23S at a cost of $5 million.

Scheduled for completion in late 2010 is expansion to five lanes of US62 east of Green Forest.

Future plans, Fulton said, include four lanes east of Eureka Springs from the Kings River Bridge to Alpena, which is projected to take a long time, and widening of US412 west of Alpena and west of Osage.

In response to questions, Fulton also said that the intersection of Hwy. 23 north of Hindsville will be reconfigured to make it safer, and that signage on US62W between Eureka Springs and Rogers to ask slower tourists to "be polite and pull over" will be investigated.

The National Highway Trust Fund is short with a current shortfall of between $8 and $10 million, said Rotarian and Highway Commissioner Dick Trammel, of Rogers. The state is applying for $1.5 billion in government discretionary funding for only one project, to be awarded in 2010, and the state will probably get the money to construct a toll-road bypass around Bella Vista in Benton County.

Trammel also alluded to materials, saying that blacktop and asphalt are not the answer in the future.

Work is also being planned to widen right-turn lanes to alleviate congestion of I-540, at an estimated cost of $400 to $450 million.

Trammel, who represents an area stretching from Mena to Bella Vista and east to Mountain Home, said that while general revenues for the state have gone up, highway revenue is flat, due to less driving with higher gasoline prices. Further, a natural gas severance tax, projected to bring in $8 million currently has brought in about $4 million, and is expected to be at $6 million or less for all of 2009.

As part of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, signed in February, has brought Arkansas about $351 million, with almost $16 million earmarked for the Little Rock and Memphis Metropolitan Areas, and leaving about $10.5 million for enhancement jobs, $4 million for city streets and signage, and $6 million for county roads, the latter two being issued at the discretion of the Arkansas Highway Commission.

With $123 million already designated, the balance of the contracts are to be let by March 2010. ARRA funds will be used for 111 projects in the state, ranging from resurfacing and passing lanes to signage.

It was noted that costs of highway construction are higher in northwest Arkansas due to the rugged terrain, with average costs running about $50 million per mile in Trammel's district, as compared to $10 million per mile in flatter eastern Arkansas.

In closing, Trammel stated that "the quaintness of the area's highways are to be treasured."