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Transportation Projects, Roads, Light Rail, etc


mcheiss

Future Proposed Northwest Arkansas Transportation Projects  

103 members have voted

  1. 1. Which Project is the best option for the future of Northwest Arkansas?

    • 10 Stop Light Rail System
      33
    • Western Bypass
      15
    • I-540 Improvements (6 to 8 lanes)
      35
    • Eastern Parkway
      6
    • Regionwide Bus Service
      8
    • Pedestrian Facilities
      1
    • Bicycle Facilities
      4
    • Ride Share Programs
      1


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I agree with you there. I don't know if it would affect the rest of northwest Arkansas quite so much but I think it would work much better in Fayetteville with just one bus system. At least you wouldn't have two different bus services competing for federal funds and could get more accomplished.

Yeah, but a lot of people up here in Benton County are more familiar with Razorback Transit than Ozark Regional Transit. If they took the name, I just think it would do a little better up here.

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Yeah, but a lot of people up here in Benton County are more familiar with Razorback Transit than Ozark Regional Transit. If they took the name, I just think it would do a little better up here.

Hmmm..familiar with the name or with the actual routes and such? I guess I wouldn't expect people in Benton County to be too familiar with Razorback Transit. They do service other areas of Fayetteville but mainly are active just around the campus.

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Hmmm..familiar with the name or with the actual routes and such? I guess I wouldn't expect people in Benton County to be too familiar with Razorback Transit. They do service other areas of Fayetteville but mainly are active just around the campus.

With both actually. A lot of the people I work with go to The football games or go visit family sometimes down in Fayetteville for a weekend. They seem to enjoy using the transit and the routes because it's such a convience.

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With both actually. A lot of the people I work with go to The football games or go visit family sometimes down in Fayetteville for a weekend. They seem to enjoy using the transit and the routes because it's such a convience.

I guess I hadn't really thought about it that way, but it makes sense. Maybe not everyone has family here, but I do imagine many people would go to Razorback games and such and would be familiar with it from that. But back to the other topic. I do think a more unified and expanded bus service in the area would also be a big help. And would also be a help in the future for other projects for something like a light rail system. But I'm not sure if there's a good shot at getting both Ozark Regional and Razorback Transit to merge. Ozark seems to slowly be getting more federal funds away from Razorback. So maybe Razorback will have to consider it more seriously in the near future.

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Did you hear about how ORT wants to make a permanent line between the Fort Smith area and cities in NW Arkansas.

Apparently they want to have three round trips to and from Ft. Smith to NW Arkansas. Each route would stop at several stops in each big city in NW Arkansas.

They seem to be convinced that they can persuade NW Arkansas companies into help paying for the transit route. The Morning News mentioned that Superior Industries was looking for around 100 jobs in Fayetteville, and people in Fort Smith seemed anxious about it.

Do you think that this would work?

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Did you hear about how ORT wants to make a permanent line between the Fort Smith area and cities in NW Arkansas.

Apparently they want to have three round trips to and from Ft. Smith to NW Arkansas. Each route would stop at several stops in each big city in NW Arkansas.

They seem to be convinced that they can persuade NW Arkansas companies into help paying for the transit route. The Morning News mentioned that Superior Industries was looking for around 100 jobs in Fayetteville, and people in Fort Smith seemed anxious about it.

Do you think that this would work?

Yeah I heard about this. A lot of what I heard revolved around having people who live in Ft Smith being able to come here to northwest Arkansas and work. I know we have low unemployment and such but it seems odd to have to rely on Ft Smith to fill jobs. I haven't heard quite so much about this after Katrina and Rita. I think a number of companies looked forward to having the evacuees come here and hope they stay and fill jobs. In some ways Ft Smith isn't that far away but I just don't see our metro really expanding and becoming a part of Ft Smith's metro. I think the Boston Mtns will hinder much development between the two areas. I think it's more like for our metro to grow towards Joplin. I've wondered if we'll eventually end up with a very long drawn out metro starting near Fayetteville and spreading all the way up to Joplin somewhere in the future.

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Yeah I heard about this. A lot of what I heard revolved around having people who live in Ft Smith being able to come here to northwest Arkansas and work. I know we have low unemployment and such but it seems odd to have to rely on Ft Smith to fill jobs. I haven't heard quite so much about this after Katrina and Rita. I think a number of companies looked forward to having the evacuees come here and hope they stay and fill jobs. In some ways Ft Smith isn't that far away but I just don't see our metro really expanding and becoming a part of Ft Smith's metro. I think the Boston Mtns will hinder much development between the two areas. I think it's more like for our metro to grow towards Joplin. I've wondered if we'll eventually end up with a very long drawn out metro starting near Fayetteville and spreading all the way up to Joplin somewhere in the future.

Superior Industries actually said that they hired 18 Katrina Evacuees, yet all of them walked off.

The low unemployement does scare me a bit, but I think there are enough people out in the MSA to fill in jobs.

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Superior Industries actually said that they hired 18 Katrina Evacuees, yet all of them walked off.

The low unemployement does scare me a bit, but I think there are enough people out in the MSA to fill in jobs.

Actually they mentioned this story on KNWA today, about busing people from Ft Smith. I guess I still have a hard time imagining that it would be cost effective to bus people from Ft Smith every work day to work in Fayetteville. What if gas prices went up more? I guess I'm also trying to consider why people wouldn't move here from Ft Smith if they could get jobs here. Granted I imagine finding a place to live here is more expensive than Ft Smith. But it seems like there's much more entertainment here also than Ft Smith. No offense to Ft Smith or anything. Maybe people could do what many others do, live in Springdale and work in Fayetteville? I just find it odd that Fayetteville is always rated as such a great place to live and we can't get enough people here to fill all the jobs being created. Maybe we have to get people out of state and risk changing our 'culture' because not enough in-state people will move here.

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Actually they mentioned this story on KNWA today, about busing people from Ft Smith. I guess I still have a hard time imagining that it would be cost effective to bus people from Ft Smith every work day to work in Fayetteville. What if gas prices went up more? I guess I'm also trying to consider why people wouldn't move here from Ft Smith if they could get jobs here. Granted I imagine finding a place to live here is more expensive than Ft Smith. But it seems like there's much more entertainment here also than Ft Smith. No offense to Ft Smith or anything. Maybe people could do what many others do, live in Springdale and work in Fayetteville? I just find it odd that Fayetteville is always rated as such a great place to live and we can't get enough people here to fill all the jobs being created. Maybe we have to get people out of state and risk changing our 'culture' because not enough in-state people will move here.

There's a lot of people at Wal-Mart HQ that live in Fort Smith and drive up to work. I'm sure if gas prices went up, they would consider taking that bus.

I think in Northwest Arkansas we are seeing another flaw, we can't fill all of our jobs. I don't know if there is much of a solution, but this could be a pretty significant negative in the future.

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There's a lot of people at Wal-Mart HQ that live in Fort Smith and drive up to work. I'm sure if gas prices went up, they would consider taking that bus.

I think in Northwest Arkansas we are seeing another flaw, we can't fill all of our jobs. I don't know if there is much of a solution, but this could be a pretty significant negative in the future.

I knew a lot of people lived outside the metro and commuted in but I guess I didn't realize that there were that many who would live as far away as Ft Smith. As I said before the only thing I can think of that would be keeping people from living here is the cost of real estate and housing prices. That and maybe there are people who want to live in an area with a smaller town feel. I would say maybe there's more incentive for us to develop more tech and higher paying jobs. But you figure many people at the Wal-mart HQ can't be doing too bad. Does anyone else have any suggestions why so many people would chose to live so far away? I can understand some instances like in Little Rock, where people feel it is safer to live further away from the city core. But northwest Arkansas is known for having a low crime rate.

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Some people are just wanting a job and willing to take the sacrafices for it.

On another note, does anyone have any comments on future road projects in the area?

Are there certain streets , street improvements, interchanges, or highway improvements that need to be implemented in the area?

I know that Olive Street in Rogers should be widened to 5 lanes due to the horrible amount of traffic that is experienced on it during peak hours.

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Some people are just wanting a job and willing to take the sacrafices for it.

On another note, does anyone have any comments on future road projects in the area?

Are there certain streets , street improvements, interchanges, or highway improvements that need to be implemented in the area?

I know that Olive Street in Rogers should be widened to 5 lanes due to the horrible amount of traffic that is experienced on it during peak hours.

I believe I've made my opinion in the Fayetteville topic before, but I'll restate it again. Fayetteville is rather behind on it's roads. They seem to have had the idea of reacting slowly to road widening in the 90's, trying to control growth. I think the opinion was that they'd try to slow down and control growth and let other areas of northwest Arkansas take a larger portion of the growth. But I think that this has also made it harder for the city to catch back up. The city is very slowly working on Gregg St, which is becoming a major north-south street. But Fayetteville is really hindered by the fact that there are very few major east-west roads. You have Joyce in the north part of the city and the in the south part of the city. Terrain has posed a problem because many of the hills tend to run north-south in Fayetteville making it harder to build major east-west roads. There's been talk of widening a road like North St but it never seems to get done and seems to be pushed to the bottom of the lists of road improvements. I've also wondered if the hillside ordinance is causing problems with this also because they can't cut down the hill to make it less steep. There's also the problem that the hilly areas tend to be residential areas and they'd have to take out quite a few houses if they ever did widen any east-west roads closer to the center of the city.

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I believe I've made my opinion in the Fayetteville topic before, but I'll restate it again. Fayetteville is rather behind on it's roads. They seem to have had the idea of reacting slowly to road widening in the 90's, trying to control growth. I think the opinion was that they'd try to slow down and control growth and let other areas of northwest Arkansas take a larger portion of the growth. But I think that this has also made it harder for the city to catch back up. The city is very slowly working on Gregg St, which is becoming a major north-south street. But Fayetteville is really hindered by the fact that there are very few major east-west roads. You have Joyce in the north part of the city and the in the south part of the city. Terrain has posed a problem because many of the hills tend to run north-south in Fayetteville making it harder to build major east-west roads. There's been talk of widening a road like North St but it never seems to get done and seems to be pushed to the bottom of the lists of road improvements. I've also wondered if the hillside ordinance is causing problems with this also because they can't cut down the hill to make it less steep. There's also the problem that the hilly areas tend to be residential areas and they'd have to take out quite a few houses if they ever did widen any east-west roads closer to the center of the city.

Walton Boulevard in Bentonville needs to complete it's expanison.

Perry Road needs to be widened to 5 lanes.

New Hope Road needs to finish up it's expansion into 5 lanes.

Extension of 45th Street in Rogers to provide a North-south corrider close to the Interstate needs to happen.

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Walton Boulevard in Bentonville needs to complete it's expanison.

Perry Road needs to be widened to 5 lanes.

New Hope Road needs to finish up it's expansion into 5 lanes.

Extension of 45th Street in Rogers to provide a North-south corrider close to the Interstate needs to happen.

I'm no expert of Rogers, but I think they've done a pretty good job of keeping up with roads. But then again I doubt Fayetteville would ever want or try to build roads as big as what Rogers is doing also.

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I'm no expert of Rogers, but I think they've done a pretty good job of keeping up with roads. But then again I doubt Fayetteville would ever want or try to build roads as big as what Rogers is doing also.

Yeah they have a lot under construction in Rogers.

The list includes:

Double turn lanes at Walnut Street and I-540.

Widening New Hope Road to 5 lanes.

Extension of 45th Street from Walnut to New Hope Road.

Widening Perry Road to 5 lanes and near The Pinnacle Promenade to 9 lanes with triple turn lanes.

Hospital Boulevard 5 lane road.

Widening Olive Street Overpass to 4 lanes.

Finish Widening Pleasant Grove Road east of I-540 to 5 lanes.

Widening Horsebarn road from Stoney Brook Road south to 5 lanes.

Widening and extending 40th Street from Walnut to New Hope Road to 5 lanes.

Widening Pleasant Grove Road Overpass from 6 to 8 lanes.

Traffic Signal at Dixeland and Persimmon.

Widnening Bellview Road to 5 lanes from Perry Road to New Hope Road.

And widening Stoney Brook Road to 3 lanes.

Man it's seems like since I've been here all I see is orange construction barrels and new asphalt.

Edited by mcheiss
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Yeah they have a lot under construction in Rogers.

The list includes:

Double turn lanes at Walnut Street and I-540.

Widening New Hope Road to 5 lanes.

Extension of 45th Street from Walnut to New Hope Road.

Widening Perry Road to 5 lanes and near The Pinnacle Promenade to 9 lanes with triple turn lanes.

Hospital Boulevard 5 lane road.

Widening Olive Street Overpass to 4 lanes.

Finish Widening Pleasant Grove Road east of I-540 to 5 lanes.

Widening Horsebarn road from Stoney Brook Road south to 5 lanes.

Widening and extending 40th Street from Walnut to New Hope Road to 5 lanes.

Widening Pleasant Grove Road Overpass from 6 to 8 lanes.

Traffic Signal at Dixeland and Persimmon.

Widnening Bellview Road to 5 lanes from Perry Road to New Hope Road.

And widening Stoney Brook Road to 3 lanes.

Man it's seems like since I've been here all I see is orange construction barrels and new asphalt.

With the way the growth is up there, it's likely you'll be seeing that for quite a while longer too.

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Probably, but we really need it up here.

Any thoughts on a possible regionwide taxi service?

Guess I hadn't put much thought in to that. I guess I would prefer more of a bus service, but I know we could use a better taxi service around here too. But this area is so spread out I'd hate to think what a fare would cost say between Fayetteville and Rogers. Although I admit I'm really not sure what fares run around here. But I have heard complaints about not very good taxi services around Fayetteville at least.

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Guess I hadn't put much thought in to that. I guess I would prefer more of a bus service, but I know we could use a better taxi service around here too. But this area is so spread out I'd hate to think what a fare would cost say between Fayetteville and Rogers. Although I admit I'm really not sure what fares run around here. But I have heard complaints about not very good taxi services around Fayetteville at least.

I think a bus system would work a lot better, but in Bentonville and West Rogers, so many people are on the go between Wal-Mart Headquarters and vendor offices. I think it might work, especially for all those out of state businessmen.

We have a small taxi company up here Tony C's, but it's not very good.

Do you know if Little Rock has a Taxi Company?

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I think a bus system would work a lot better, but in Bentonville and West Rogers, so many people are on the go between Wal-Mart Headquarters and vendor offices. I think it might work, especially for all those out of state businessmen.

We have a small taxi company up here Tony C's, but it's not very good.

Do you know if Little Rock has a Taxi Company?

Tony C's is down here too and I also agree with you it's not too great. There used to be a Cardinal Taxi but I'm not sure if it's still open though. I'm sure Little Rock has some taxi services but I'm not sure if any of them are very good.

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Tony C's is down here too and I also agree with you it's not too great. There used to be a Cardinal Taxi but I'm not sure if it's still open though. I'm sure Little Rock has some taxi services but I'm not sure if any of them are very good.

I'm sure one will come, once more downtown development occurs in the area.

A little of topic and out of the area.

Do you know if Jonesboro has started their bus system?

I had heard something about it, but wasn't sure if it's working or what. I was a little suprised to find out that they were planning one.

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I'm sure one will come, once more downtown development occurs in the area.

A little of topic and out of the area.

Do you know if Jonesboro has started their bus system?

I had heard something about it, but wasn't sure if it's working or what. I was a little suprised to find out that they were planning one.

I'm not positive either. It might be better to ask this question again under the Jonesboro topic and then maybe we can get one of our northeast Arkansas forumers to answer. Or maybe even one of the helpful western Tennessee forumers that sometime come over and visit here.

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I'm not positive either. It might be better to ask this question again under the Jonesboro topic and then maybe we can get one of our northeast Arkansas forumers to answer. Or maybe even one of the helpful western Tennessee forumers that sometime come over and visit here.

I'm sure that it would do well, especially with ASU.

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