Highway commissioner discusses county improvements

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

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

Scheduled for completion in late 2020 is expansion to five lanes of U.S. Hwy. 62 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 U.S. Hwy. 412 west of Alpena and west of Osage.

In response to questions, Fulton also said that the intersection of Ark. Hwy. 23 north of Hindsville will be reconfigured to make it safer, and that signage on U.S. 62 West between Eureka Springs and Rogers, requesting slow-driving tourists to "be polite and pull over," will be investigated.

Rotarian and Highway Commissioner Dick Trammel, of Rogers, said the state is applying for $1.5 billion in government discretionary funding for only one project, to be awarded in 2010, for construction of 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 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."