Safety concerns put Macy Boulevard closure on hold
The temporary closure of Macy Boulevard the Arkansas Department of Transportation planned to initiate later this month has been put on hold, ARDOT said Thursday.
ARDOT public information officer Dave Parker said the closure was suspended after safety concerns were expressed during a Wednesday conference call that included Garland County Judge Darryl Mahoney, District 12 Justice of the Peace Jeremy Brown and National Park College Vice President for Administration Kelli Embry.
The closure will require residents in the Fairwood Subdivision and an adjacent mobile home park to use Bull
Bayou Road to access Albert Pike Road (Highway 270 west).
Brown said many of those residents and others in the area began using Bull Bayou to access Albert Pike when Mcgeorge Contracting Co. began realigning the Highway 227-Albert Pike junction late last year.
The realignment is part of the $22.6 million project to widen Albert Pike to five lanes from the Highway 227 junction west to Fleetwood Drive.
“Specific concerns were the increase in traffic and turning movements at Bull Bayou Road and Highway 270/Albert Pike Road,” Parker said. “Due to these expressed concerns, the as submitted proposal by the project contractor with a tentative closure date of Jan. 18 is on hold until these safety issues have been satisfactorily addressed and approved by the department. Macy Boulevard might still be closed for a period of time to aid with the realignment of Highway 227, but that decision has not been made at this time.”
Brown said Friday that he and Mahoney requested a temporary traffic control device at the Bull Bayou-albert Pike intersection. Albert Pike bounds the southern end of his JP district,
which includes the Highway 227, or Mountain Pine Road, corridor, Fairwood Subdivision and adjacent mobile home park. He said about 300 homes are in the subdivision and mobile home park.
Drivers cross three lanes of traffic to turn left onto Albert Pike from Bull Bayou. Brown said westbound vehicles that stack up at the Albert Pike-mountain Pine junction traffic signal can extend to Cajun Broilers restaurant during busy times, making it difficult to turn left onto Albert Pike from Bull Bayou.
“I live out here, and wrecks are pretty frequent,” he said.
He said the eight to 12 weeks it will take to realign the Albert Pike-mountain Pine junction is the price of progress.
“We can deal with a little bit of pain and inconvenience while they’re rebuilding it,” he said.
ARDOT said at the October groundbreaking for the Highway 270 west widening that the project will be completed by the end of next year. The widening was initially programmed for 3.65 miles, extending it west to the Lake Hamilton bridge, but ARDOT said in 2018 that funding limitations reduced the project’s scope.
The 0.50% statewide sales tax voters approved in 2012 and extended in perpetuity in the November 2020 general election is funding the project.