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Little Rock Highways


Rardy

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Actually, most HOV lanes I've seen in SoCal and Atlanta are just open lanes with double-white line designations (meaning do NOT cross except where dashed)...in fact, my father-in-law got a ticket in LA for crossing the double-white line. So yes, it's enforced.

I'm not saying it's not enforced in other places, of course it is, but I do see it being difficult to enforce on a stretch that long on I-40 as is being suggested by other members. In an urban/in-city interstate loop HOV is pretty easy to monitor, but that's a long, relatively rural stretch of 40 and it's in the middle of a big cross-country freight route. I can't say I've ever seen a stretch like that done with an HOV lane and I still don't think it's the most efficient use of funds/pavement. In the Houston/Dallas layouts they have the physically divided lanes (to make it harder to abuse I guess), I've not driven the open format in Atlanta in a while so I guess I don't remember it as clearly. I wasn't trying to belittle anyone's ideas, it is an interesting suggestion, I just don't think it would be well utilized and would therefore be a somewhat impractical/just-for-looks solution to the traffic problem. In the future as the population grows I can see it being more justifiable.

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I'm not saying it's not enforced in other places, of course it is, but I do see it being difficult to enforce on a stretch that long on I-40 as is being suggested by other members. In an urban/in-city interstate loop HOV is pretty easy to monitor, but that's a long, relatively rural stretch of 40 and it's in the middle of a big cross-country freight route. I can't say I've ever seen a stretch like that done with an HOV lane and I still don't think it's the most efficient use of funds/pavement. In the Houston/Dallas layouts they have the physically divided lanes (to make it harder to abuse I guess), I've not driven the open format in Atlanta in a while so I guess I don't remember it as clearly. I wasn't trying to belittle anyone's ideas, it is an interesting suggestion, I just don't think it would be well utilized and would therefore be a somewhat impractical/just-for-looks solution to the traffic problem. In the future as the population grows I can see it being more justifiable.

Oh, don't get me wrong...I agree, there's really no justification (yet) for HOV lanes in central Arkansas. I was just pointing out that that format is quite common.

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Considering the influx of traffic from the suburbs into Little Rock, I'd love to have local and express lanes divided by a some sort of barrier. I use I-40 East between Maumelle and North Little Rock quite a bit in the mornings and it would be great if the people coming in from Faulkner County didn't have to slow down until I-430. I realize there's no justification to spend that kind of money... but if we're talking about how we'd like to see things in a perfect world, that's my two cents. :)

I do look forward to the expansion of I-40 to six lanes one of these days...

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  • 8 months later...
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It seems AHTD is starting to preparing to resume widening 67/167 where they left off at Redmond Rd and going north of Cabot. It will be very interesting to see how they 'fix' Jacksonville and bring the roads up to current design standards. There's very little shoulder (if at all) and median to work with through Jacksonville and the exit ramps will certianly need to be reworked to bring up to current design standards.

http://www.arkansashighways.com/public_meetings/2012/061261/061261.aspx

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  • 7 months later...

Wow.. AHTD has a pretty bold plan out there for the redevelopment of Highway 10 between I-430 and Ferndale Cuttoff ~ 8.5 miles @ 64 million dollars.   It's a pretty complex intersection for Arkansas drivers at Rodney Parham & Highway 10.   Also cramming 6-8 traffic lanes in that narrow corridor will be intereseting to see!

 

Video animation:   http://www.thv11.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=2310943770001

 

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  • 3 months later...

Was anyone else disturbed by the Mayor of NLR unceremoniously "turning out the lights" on the I-30/I-40 interchange, which serves 400,000 cars a day?!  His city electrical staff advised that some welds (on the poles?) were bad and they were magnets for copper thieves.  So rather than address it, he just turned had them turned off.  Supposedly the replacement cost per pole is $100,000 and there are 11.  First, I'm shocked the cost, maintenance and apparently oversight of this is at the municipal level instead of the AHTD or even DOT.  Second, I'm surprised there isn't a DOT requirement.

 

In my opinion, this is extremely shortsighted.  400,000 cars, and no lights.   I guess rather than fix infrastructure, NLR just plans to abandon it.  I can assure you that the city of LR will have the Big Rock interchange well lit.

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Was anyone else disturbed by the Mayor of NLR unceremoniously "turning out the lights" on the I-30/I-40 interchange, which serves 400,000 cars a day?!  His city electrical staff advised that some welds (on the poles?) were bad and they were magnets for copper thieves.  So rather than address it, he just turned had them turned off.  Supposedly the replacement cost per pole is $100,000 and there are 11.  First, I'm shocked the cost, maintenance and apparently oversight of this is at the municipal level instead of the AHTD or even DOT.  Second, I'm surprised there isn't a DOT requirement.

 

In my opinion, this is extremely shortsighted.  400,000 cars, and no lights.   I guess rather than fix infrastructure, NLR just plans to abandon it.  I can assure you that the city of LR will have the Big Rock interchange well lit.

 

I read that and just shook my head. That interchange is already not the smoothest running thing, it definitely needs to be lit at night. They can lower their electric costs by replacing the old ones (if they do indeed need replaced) with LED fixtures like those in use on the NLR side of I-30, and I find it hard to believe that NLR couldn't get some sort of funding from either the state or government to help defray the cost a bit. At any rate, $1.1 million may seem like small change if a lawsuit regarding a wreck eventually comes from that action. 

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  • 1 year later...

Has anybody heard any further discussion about the North Belt Freeway?  Is the idea dead or just not near the top of the priority list?  

 

It's not even on life support.  Metroplan even pulled it from their planning template if I'm not mistaken (or something similar to that).  I don't really understand why other than they felt the need was waning while cost was rising, and that it likely couldn't be justified without a sustainable funding source (a tollway was considered).

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It's not even on life support.  Metroplan even pulled it from their planning template if I'm not mistaken (or something similar to that).  I don't really understand why other than they felt the need was waning while cost was rising, and that it likely couldn't be justified without a sustainable funding source (a tollway was considered).

 

I couldn't remember what was the latest.  Thanks.  

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It's not even on life support.  Metroplan even pulled it from their planning template if I'm not mistaken (or something similar to that).  I don't really understand why other than they felt the need was waning while cost was rising, and that it likely couldn't be justified without a sustainable funding source (a tollway was considered).

The only part that was ever actually completed with the North Belt was the stretch between I-40 and US-67-167. They should have just gone ahead and completed the entire thing while the costs were still down. They were indeed considering it becoming a tollway, but only four lanes for some reason, and a tollway is the only possible I can see this project actually working out. It's a shame that it probably won't be completed, because it would have been good for the north metro (Jacksonville, Cabot, Sherwood, Maumelle, etc.).

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