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No... unless Fayetteville took it, in which case, as you know, they could do whatever they like. However, as far as I know, Fayetteville admin has given up on that idea. They know they could even take College Ave from AHTD, but they don't want to.

Guys, think of it this way-- if it WAS a City Street, it would cost the City so much money, that it would likely be in a much worse shape. That's why the State takes on many major city streets that have a lot of traffic and/or truck traffic (mostly it's a political deal)-- the City can't afford to maintain it. So the State maintains it. (Or in other cases, the State will take on a city street just because the City wants it widened-- after it gets widened, the City takes it back (political deal).)

That's funny, because I was thinking along those lines when I read that article, it seemed suspicous. Developers. Like I've said before, they are sometimes known as paid liars.

That's something the consultants will be looking at in the months to come. You're right, it'll be tight. If this were to be a reality, there would probably be a few impacts on adjacent businesses. But it's all about getting your bang for your buck. Typically, CFI's are being considered, and have been considered, in lieu of the ultimate drastic solution to intersection congestion-- building a grade-seperated interchange, which is very expensive. Here's an example of a major one Utah DOT is constructing in Salt Lake City: google earth lat: 40 41 47.85 N and long: 111 58 50.96 W, which is 3500 South and Bangerter (http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=109039, http://www.udot.utah.gov/download.php/tid=...South%20CFI.pdf). Here, they have a mature grid network. But it's an intersection of two major roads, and it's congested. They will definitely have impacted businesses. But constructing a CFI instead of a grade-seperated interchange is, they decided, an attractive option to help reduce their congestion. Just an example.

Yes... it was in the paper. It was one of the 4 options that was talked about. A connection from Millsap/North Hills Blvd to Steele/Shiloh under Fulbright. Check out the article on-line-- NWA Times has their archives in pdf , so you can see the pictures. If I was smart and had time, I would post it.

You're right. For CFI to work, it has to be two opposing left-turning lanes. So if they do the nortbound direction, they must do the southbound direction. If they do the westbound direction, they have to do the eastbound direction.

I think that was rather well put. I think Coody's desired vision will be tried for College Avenue. For the Mall area, I think it's too late. Even when they redeveloped a part of that area (Nelson's Crossing), it's still auto-oriented. People who will work at the new P&G complex will drive to lunch. People who shop at the Mall will drive to Starbucks. So on and so forth.

It looks like they goofed on the video-- the video I'm seeing is the existing intersection, not the proposed CFI. Oh well.

I agree, if that can be done while minimizing cost, that would be great. Those new developments on East Joyce are very auto-dependent. But on the western portions of CMN, near the new Van Asche and Gregg, with all that developable land, there is opportunity to create a proper street network, and to create more transit oriented and ped friendly developments.

I honestly don't have an opinion. I would wait until I saw their results before formulating an opinion. So I plead the 5th ...I guess from someone who grew up in that part of town, and have driven through that area literally thousands of times, I always thought that the flyover was a good idea. However, Fayetteville only has so much money, and some of the proposals are going to cost an arm and a leg. To me, Fayetteville needs to get the most "bang for their buck", but I'm not sure which potential project(s) would do that for them. But let's face it-- these consultants were like a cold bucket of water for some at Fayetteville. That area of town is very auto-centric. The essential, true purpose of this study is to, basically, reduce auto congestion or, as Fayetteville sees it, to make that area more accessible and thus more economically competitive. They don't want to choke on their congestion. To do that with only a very limited amount of cash, it's nice to think lovey-dovey thoughts like roundabouts, turning a freeway into a boulevard, etc., but that's not reality. They need real solutions to real problems in that area. And they're only going to get more cars with all these auto-dependent developments. To make it economically competitive, they need more asphalt, concrete, and steel. Like it or not.

The proposal you may be thinking of is for construction of a SPUI on Fulbright, to connect Steele from near Target to near Washington Regional. The Fulbright freeway will still be there. Oh, I have no clue. I'm pretty sure Fayetteville has no clue as well, but they eventually are planning for development to occur there at some point. It is a great location.

No, their proposals do not include moving I-540, nor "pushing" Fulbright "further back from College". I don't recall the article stating that; if he/she did, he/she was mistaken or miswrote. The $100 million option actually has nothing to do with the other options, and is thus a little misleading. I don't know why it was presented as such (the City of Fay did ask them though to include it in their study). That $100 million is actually for, essentially, a master street plan for when that area develops in the future for those many square miles of mostly undeveloped land west of CMN, east of Garland. It really has nothing to do with the main part of their study, which is to find solutions to reduce congestion in and around that part of town. Like a flyover over College to get to Fulbright.

Ah, so it's part of their wastewater upgrade and expansion. The reason of building 4 lanes instead of 5 lanes is basically money. When in doubt, it's 99.9% bottom line about $$.

That's just what occurred to me too. If it's because of laying pipe, then it must be the Vantage extension. Though to my understanding, I thought it was going to curve over and connect to the frontage road, right next to Panera bread.

Someone showed that to me today as well... blew my mind.

I was just thinking that the other day-- there sure aren't a lot of new pictures of NWA lately... I probably have been spoiled because you and mcheiss have been doing such a fine job in recent months

I've noticed in that construction zone, posted at 55 mph mind you, people still drive about 65-85 mph. This is typical for many construction zones I've driven through in big cities-- people just don't slow down that much from what I've seen. If it's raining, I recomend slowing down more than the posted. Not to say you weren't speeding-- of course, I never speed through work zones Next time when I'm in the neighborhood in BV, I'll check it out. It was very bad before (lot's of rutting and bleeding of the pavement). I'm sure it's smoother than before. I wouldn't exagerate that much about Texas. They, like Arkansas and many other states for example, still overlay asphalt over old concrete roads, which really doesn't do jack to improve the ride because of the old slabs underneath (so you still feel the rythmic bumps). It just keeps the road in decent structural shape.

I think you are correct.

That's because it's not a comment or questionaire form, so to speak. It's only meant for those who drive to/from the NWA Mall area. It's basically a trip survey to help the consultants in their work-- to find out where people are coming from, how often, what time, etc. That's all. I meant to post that link a while back, but just forgot about it. Thanks Thia for bringing that to people's attention, as that will help out quite a bit.

No, I think a curbed center median with grass, as shown in the above pics, is less expensive than pavement, even including maintenance costs. However, for a "true" boulevard that functions properly, you need more total width for the median-- primarily for turning bays, pedestrian refuges, and space for large trucks to make a u-turn (at least at intersections). Plus there's width for the curb-- added up, a "true" boulevard typically costs more than a 5-lane road. However, what you are seeing in those pics near the Promenade are like mini-boulevards. For some reason, they are really popular in NWA (most likely because they are cheaper than real boulevards). I don't think I've ever seen mini-boulevard designs in other metros in the US. They don't provide any true function (unless a paved pedestrian refuge were built at crosswalk locations in low-speed areas), other than to look pretty.

It's on another thread: Fayetteville Street Plan, Approved by the 2006 Elections It's number 6 on that list.

I think you hit the nail on the head. When Clunk closed (not the store... which, BTW, didn't he close that too recently?), where were bands like Modest Mouse, Paper Chase, Pedro, TGUK, etc. going to go. BTW, I didn't know Modest Mouse played in Fayetteville twice (must've been before I heard of them)... I regret not seeing them the last time they came to Fayetteville. Oh well

That still sounds pretty bad. Sometimes they don't exactly know how bad traffic tie-ups are due to construction until they get complaints about it. At least they are doing it at night.

Backed up for 3 miles at night? That's pretty harsh. If you have a legitimate complaint, I would suggest making a phone call to the local AHTD resident office in Bentonville, or the higher-up district office. That contact info is on the AHTD website somewhere. If it's real bad, they'll get a bunch of phone calls and may change up their scheduling or something.