Work on Bella Vista, U.S. 412 bypasses on track
FAYETTEVILLE — Work on Bella Vista and U.S. 412 bypass projects is on or ahead or schedule thanks to good weather, state highway officials said.
“We’ve had quite a bit of rain, but they’ve still been able to work quite a bit,” said Mitchell Archer, District 9 construction engineer. “We’re working out our issues as we go through.”
Work continues on the 14-mile Bella Vista Bypass even though Missouri highway officials said they don’t have the money to link up with the new road at the state line, as has long been the plan.
Work is ongoing from Interstate 49 in north Bentonville, including a large roundabout and other interchange improvements. The road will be part of I-49 when completed. Base and concrete paving are in place from Arkansas 72 on the west to past Pumpkin Hollow Road, going east.
“Realistically, we’re looking at right after the first of the year before we’ll actually be opening the roundabout and sending traffic down the new bypass,” Archer said. “There’s going to be a lot of the work that will be completed, but once you complete that bulk work, there’s a lot of cleanup, there’s a lot of shoulder gravel to put on, you have to pave the shoulders with asphalt.”
The Bella Vista Bypass is designed to route traffic around the western edge of Bella Vista near I-49’s exit 93, rejoining I-49 near Pineville, Mo. The road is expected to take up to 6,000 cars a day off U.S. 71 through Bella Vista.
Archer said the department measures progress by comparing percentage of time allotted for a job to the percentage of the job completed. Bella Vista Bypass jobs were allotted 257 working days and crews have worked 236 days. Archer said the contractor has used 94.4 percent of the time, and 78 percent of the money for current work has been used. The money side is catching up pretty quickly because crews are doing some of the more high-dollar work now.
The roundabout cannot be opened until the road is completed to basically the Arkansas 72 interchange, Archer said.
Getting the road connected back to I-49 in Missouri still requires Arkansas building a 2.5-mile section to the state line and Missouri building a section from the state line to just south of Pineville.
Darin Hamelink, area engineer for the Missouri Department of Transportation, told regional planners earlier this year $20 million is budgeted in 2020 for construction of the 4.81-mile project, but another $30 million is needed to finish the road.
All right of way has been acquired, Hamelink said. He said the environmental impact statement needs to be done. Preliminary design work is completed, but $3 million must be allocated to finish the plans, he said.
Missouri officials, at one time, said they had money in hand to go ahead with the project when Arkansas was ready. Arkansas wasn’t ready at that point and Missouri switched the money to other projects. Hamelink said Missouri is now dealing with a shortage of highway money.
“I don’t think we’ll ever see construction quit on the Bella Vista Bypass until its four lanes and finished,” said Dick Trammel, chairman of the Arkansas Highway Commission. “It’s not a road to nowhere. The part that’s finished and open, it’s being used pretty heavily.”