Farmington Hires Firm To Get Easements To Widen Highway 170

FARMINGTON — Farmington City Council hired a firm out of Oklahoma City to work on the next phase for widening Highway 170.

The Council approved a contract for $513,725 with Pinnacle Consultant Management Group to acquire rights of way to relocate utilities to widen Highway 170 for two miles, from Main Street to Clyde Carnes Road.

This does not include paying the negotiated price for utility easements.

In all, the city has requested $1.75 million to acquire rights of way and pay property owners for those easements. The city’s portion of this phase will be 20 percent of the costs, or $350,000, with 80 percent reimbursed through federal highway grant funds.

Mayor Ernie Penn said the city would use money from its street bond fund to pay its share of the project.

The city will have to acquire easements from 63 parcels, with the average right-of-way depth about 10 feet, according to James Braden with Pinnacle Group. The project will need the most land along curves on the highway where

the road design calls for somewhat flattening out the sharp curves.

Braden said the scope of the work will be title work, appraisals or evaluations, negotiations and closings. Pinnacle has contracted with Tom Reed of Reed and Associates to work on the project.

Braden explained that easements would be acquired on behalf of the city but they would be in the name of Arkansas State Highway Commission because Highway 170 is a state highway.

The costs for the easements will vary greatly, according to Braden. For most of them, his firm hopes to do what’s called a waiver evaluation, which he said is not as costly as an appraisal. If an agreement is not reached between a property owner and the city, then the firm will conduct an appraisal of the property.

In addition, if compensation for an easement exceeds $10,000, the firm will automatically do an appraisal for the right of way.

A memo to the City Council from city business manager Melissa McCarville says the city is required to comply with all state and federal regulations because the project is using federal highway grant funds. Arkansas Transportation Department has approved the process to acquire easements.

A work schedule attached to the contract shows a notice to proceed would be issued July 20 and the project would be finished June 30, 2019.

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.

The third phase of the project will be to relocate utilities, and the fourth stage will be construction. The widening is estimated to be finished in 2020-21.

The project calls for three 12-foot-wide lanes, with a continuous left-hand turning lane throughout the two miles. Both sides of the road will have 5-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. The sharp curves are located at Wolfdale, Southwinds and Appleby.

Garver LLC engineering firm of Fayetteville designed the road.