82-B road improvement design concepts in planning stage

EL DORADO — The city of El Dorado took a major step toward advancing long-running plans by the state to widen and improve the U.S. 82-B/Hillsboro gateway.

During a regular El Dorado City Council meeting on Feb. 9, aldermen passed a resolution expressing the city’s willingness to adopt U.S. 82-B/Hillsboro/ Junction City Road once the improvements are made.

By approving the resolution, the council authorized Mayor Frank Hash to negotiate with the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department to find a design concept for the project that will be mutually beneficial for the city and state.

While the proposed project is still in the planning stages and years away from completion, Hash said showing the state that the city is ready to assume ownership and maintenance of the four-mile corridor helps to push the process forward.

“The state highway department has so much highway system, and they need to divest themselves of some of it,” Hash said. “If they make it a good enough deal, we’re more likely to adopt it.”

Hash said the AHTD is still working with a design team — comprised of engineers, planners, landscape architects and economic and transportation development strategists from VantagePoint, Crafton Tull and Associates, Inc., Tool Design Group and VantagePoint — to develop a profile for the corridor, noting that he expects to hear an update on the plans within the next couple of weeks.

Last September, the team held a multi-day design workshop in El Dorado to gather input from local residents to shape the master plan.

To help balance the priorities for the project, the design team guided the audience through a series of questions pertaining to such topics as land use, design (medians, roundabouts, outdoor dining areas, etc.), and economic development.

Hash said the city intends to work with the state to create a context-sensitive, multi-modal corridor.

Upon notifying the AHTD of the council’s passage of the resolution, Hash started the first round of negotiations by sending a letter spelling out the terms under which the city would be willing to assume responsibility for U.S. 82-B.

Some of the proposed design components are:

• A 10-foot, multi-use trail on the north side of the highway throughout the length of the project area.

• Landscape installation throughout the length of the project area, within buffers and within the center of the median.

• An irrigation system.

• Underground utilities, extending eastward to U.S. 167.

• Aesthetics enhancements to the viaduct and the bridge crossing the Rock Island easement, including bridge lighting, black-powder coated fencing along the base of the viaduct adjacent to the railroad tracks and wrought-iron fencing along the top of the bridge rail, as required by Union Pacific Railroad.

• Roundabouts and related improvements to Timberlane, College and West Avenue.

• Reconstruction of the railroad trestle overpass with aesthetic enhancements and necessary design upgrades.

The city has also asked the AHTD to provide some engineering and design components,

including:

• Environmental and design fees if the project design and construction documents are not completed by the AHTD.

• Right-of-way acquisition services. The acquisitions would also be assumed by the city upon completion of the project.

• Coordinate all necessary utility relocations.

By adopting the corridor, Hash said the city would be able to relax some of the standards that are required with the maintenance of state highways, such as retaining three-feet of green space between the curb and sidewalk.

“In some cases, the sidewalk would go all the way up to the curbing. That would give us a lot more leeway,” Hash said.

The city and state are also working to minimize the impact for businesses and homes within the project boundaries.

Hash said the number of businesses and homes that would be affected ranges between 25 and 50, according to analyses that have been compiled separately by the AHTD and Crafton Tull.

“It’s not settled upon yet because the actual profile has not been agreed upon,” Hash said.

Crafton Tull is also developing a master bicycle/ pedestrian plan for the city.

During the Feb. 9 city council meeting, aldermen authorized Hash to negotiate the sale of city-owned property in the Memphis Heights neighborhood.

Hash said at the time there was a potential buyer who may want to relocate a residence onto the property, which was donated to the city years ago, and he needed the council’s approval to sell it.

He told aldermen that the prospective buyer is a woman whose property the city purchased in June 2015.

The property in the 100 block of East Pecan is in the northernmost approach to the Downtown Airport, and the woman was looking to sell the property and relocate a mobile home at the time.

Hash said Monday that he has made an offer on the Memphis Heights lot, but the prospective buyer has not yet stepped forward.