Street list moves closer to final OK

Regional planners ready to divvy up federal money

SPRINGDALE — Regional planners have narrowed the list of Northwest Arkansas street and trail projects they hope will get federal transportation money next year.

Projects on the short list come to $7.7 million and include moving a segment of Rupple Road in Fayetteville and a Dixieland Street extension near the J.B. Hunt Transport Services corporate office in Lowell.

The list is one step closer to final approval after the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission’s Technical Advisory Committee gave its go-ahead Thursday. Next, the commission needs to weigh in and plans to next week, then Congress and federal officials have to send the money.

Each year millions of federal dollars flow into the region to cover part of the cost of street and trail improvement, expansions and the like. Before the money gets here, the commission, which includes officials from cities in Northwest Arkansas, hashes out a plan to direct the money to where it’d be most useful.

“Everybody worked together to advance the projects that were closer to being ready,” Tim Conklin, assistant director for the commission, said after the committee meeting.

Under the tentative plan, Fayetteville would receive about $1.8 million in 2018, most of it reworking the Rupple T-junction with Mount Comfort Road many residents and city officials have said is dangerous. That money comes on top of about $3 million the project will get this year from federal surface transportation block grants.

City engineer Chris Brown said Friday the project will go to bid “as soon as possible” and could wrap up by mid-2019.

Another $3 million would go to Lowell for its Dixieland extension, covering a little less than half of the project’s cost. Rogers would get more than $1 million for work on South 28th Place near Pinnacle Hills Promenade and for sidewalks along West Walnut Street.

Projects in Farmington, Benton County and Siloam Springs round out the list.

The $8 million or so in projects would be a sharp drop from the $18 million cities were hoping for in July. Springdale and Johnson, for example, won’t be getting $4 million they wanted for a 56th Street extension. Rogers would get a fraction of what it originally wanted.

But there were always going to be tradeoffs, given the federal government has typically allocated about $8 million a year in the infrastructure grants. Separate federal grants go to transit.

Not getting on the list generally means cities will hold off on a given project or get it started with other

money. Conklin at the committee meeting thanked leaders for helping to trim the list to within the likely amount of money available.

“Springdale and Rogers agreed to defer 2018 funding to 2019 so Fayetteville and Lowell could move their project construction ahead in 2018,” Springdale spokeswoman Melissa Reeves said Friday. “Springdale will be on the 2019 project list.”

The list, even if approved, can also change during the year with unexpected delays or complications in the projects. The committee Thursday voted to let Fayetteville take on about $600,000 more than planned this year because the money’s original destination, work in Farmington, didn’t come together in time to use the money.

Fayetteville plans to use the money for Rupple and agreed to receive $600,000 less in 2018 to make up the difference. The full planning commission will also have final say on the move next week.

“We have to use it (the money), or there’s a possibility of losing it,” Conklin said.