Highway 170 Public Meeting Set

FARMINGTON — The city of Farmington will hold a public involvement meeting from 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesday,

July 11, at the Farmington Performing

Arts Center on the design plans to widen and improve two miles of Highway 170.

Property owners along the highway will receive personal invites to the drop-in public meeting but anyone from the community is welcome to come, view the design plans, ask questions and submit

comments. Farmington PAC is located on Highway 170, next to Cardinal Arena.

The public comment period will remain open for 15 days, through July 26.

About 50 percent of the project has been designed, according to Ron Petrie, senior project manager with Garver LLC engineering firm in Fayetteville. Farmington awarded a $650,000 contract to Garver to design the project, with 80 percent funded with federal highway money and a 20 percent matching grant from the city. Farmington will be responsible for $130,000.

According to information to be handed out at the public meeting, the purpose of the project is to reduce traffic congestion, increase vehicular capacity and improvement of roadway safety to the surrounding area.

The two-mile project starts at the intersection of Highway 170 and Main Street in Farmington and ends at the intersection of Highway 170 and Clyde Carnes Road. Currently, the highway is 21 feet wide. Improvements call for three 12-foot-wide lanes, with a continuous left hand turning lane throughout the two miles.

Both sides of the road will have five-foot-wide sidewalks, along with curb and gutter and shoulders. A green space of three feet will be located between the highway and sidewalk.

The section has three 90-degree curves and these will be flattened slightly, Petrie said. The sharp curves are located at Wolfdale, Southwinds and Appleby.

Petrie said Garver and city officials looked at several options on what to do about the intersection of Southwinds Drive and Highway 170.

A traffic study showed the intersection did not meet the requirements for a traffic signal, he said.

One idea, said Petrie, was to make it a T-intersection with all-way stops. School officials and the police chief were involved in discussions and it was finally decided to keep the basic design of the intersection the same but to flatten out the curve to improve visibility from all directions.

Melissa McCarville, city business manager, said she does not believe traffic will be much of a problem at the intersection on a daily basis. For large school events, such as graduation, police officers can be used to control traffic.

Petrie said the city can add a traffic signal in the future if it becomes warranted.

The firm’s traffic study for the two miles showed an average daily count of 2,515 vehicles for the design year, 2016. Projected growth twenty years out in 2036 is an average 4,629 vehicles on the road per day. The projection includes traffic for the new high school, which opens this year.

As part of the design stage, Garver conducted environmental, cultural and archeological studies. Petrie said no biological or historical issues were found. The firm did find culverts that were installed in the 1930s by the Works Progress Administration.

After the public meeting, Garver’s next steps will be to submit final environmental documents to the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department and finish the design stage.

The city’s next step in the Highway 170 project will be to acquire rights of way to widen the road and relocate utilities. The city will seek to acquire property on both sides of the existing highway and will use an outside firm for this, McCarville said.

Farmington has already been approved to receive 2017 federal money to acquire rights-of-way. McCarville said the city estimates right-of-way acquisition will cost about $600,000. Farmington’s portion of this is 20 percent or about $120,000.

The third phase of the project is to relocate utilities and the Farmington City Council recently approved a resolution to apply for 2018 money to pay to relocate utilities. Next, the city will request funding for construction. Petrie said the estimated construction cost is $7.5 million.

Still undecided is whether the project would have to be constructed in phases. This will depend on cost and available funds. McCarville said it is not unusual to fund a project over several years.

The Highway 170 project is being funded through the STP-A program, a federal highway program available to areas that have reached a threshold population of 200,000. The acronym stands for Surface Transportation Program — Attributable.

Northwest Arkansas is eligible for $6 million per year and communities can apply for the funds through Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission. A committee evaluates the applications and makes recommendations to the Commission.

Petrie