Regional Mobility Authority reconvenes

SPRINGDALE — Regional planners resurrected a group Wednesday that hadn’t met in four years to coordinate regionally significant transportation projects and find ways to pay for them.

The Northwest Arkansas Regional Mobility Authority last met Aug. 1, 2014. The authority’s purpose is to spearhead projects that cross jurisdictional lines or that individual cities or counties can’t do on their own.

Planners placed the authority in a holding pattern after voters in 2012 approved the 10-year Connecting Arkansas Program, which the Arkansas Department of Transportation has been using to construct projects in Northwest Arkansas, such as Interstate 49 and Arkansas 265 improvements and building the U.S. 412 and Bella Vista bypasses.

Planners said Wednesday it’s time to dust off the authority because the Connecting Arkansas Program is winding down and will end in 2023, taking with it about $16 million a year

cities and counties in the region have been receiving for projects.

Tim Conklin of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning office pointed out several areas where the authority may want to focus, including federal grant applications, a regional traffic management program with the state Transportation Department, a 10-year transit development plan, regional bike share programs and the end of state-funded programs.

“There are a lot of different components of the infrastructure out there that are beyond these cities’ abilities to manage,” Conklin said. “We just wanted to give you a list of ideas and thoughts of what the region might want to look at as we may have a million people by 2050.”

Authority members approved a federal grant application BikeNWA wants to use for a regional Safe Routes to Schools program. The authority will ask for $115,920, and BikeNWA would have to come up with a $28,980 match for the program, which has a total estimated cost of $144,900.

The program would benefit school-aged children and the community at large, said