City aims to ease truck traffic impact

FORT SMITH — Arkansas’ second-largest city will begin taking steps as a part of a larger plan to mitigate the effects of truck traffic in the downtown area.

James Arbuckle, senior vice president and operations manager of the firm Halff Associates Inc. in Little Rock, gave a presentation on the Fort Smith Downtown Traffic and Truck Study during the city Board of Directors study session Tuesday.

This study had originally been presented to the board during its Feb. 25 study session.

Fort Smith City Administrator Carl Geffken said the city would look to implement the short-term recommendations outlined in the study to help move the traffic on Garrison Avenue, as well as some of the midterm recommendations. The short-term items include working on the traffic light timing at the Fifth Street/Garrison Avenue intersection, and “to begin the process of saying, ‘Where do we want the current truck route to go.’”

The short- term recommendations would cost about $275,000 and take about 12 to 18 months to implement, according to the study. The recommended midterm improvements would cost about $600,000 and take 24 to 36 months to implement while other improvements designated as long term would take 3 to 5 years and about $5.8 million.

THE STUDY

Arbuckle said the final traffic and truck study took more than 12 months to complete, starting with a kickoff meeting on Dec. 17, 2018, and culminating in a final report on Jan. 17, 2020. Between those two points, according to the study, were separate phases that included collecting data, conducting a needs assessment of study area conditions and community preferences, developing and studying alternative truck routes and corresponding transportation system improvements, and working toward a “preferred concept.”

This process entailed soliciting public and stakeholder input through various initiatives, as well as meeting with a “working group” whose members were appointed by the Fort Smith Board of Directors to provide oversight for the study a number of times.

Arbuckle said seven different alternatives for the downtown Fort Smith truck routes were developed. Three of these alternatives were then evaluated, with the one dubbed the “Fifth Street to Kelley Highway Alternative” receiving the highest score.

This alternative would utilize the existing Arkansas 255, or Wheeler Avenue, truck route south of U. S. 64, or Garrison Avenue, according to the study. North of U. S. 64, the alignment follows Fifth Street, shifts to Fourth Street between A and B streets, and continues along Fourth Street until it intersects with the future Kelley Highway. From there, trucks could travel east along Kelley Highway to U.S. 71B, or Midland Boulevard, and tie into the existing truck route that connects to Interstate 540. Trucks traveling west on Kelley Highway could connect with the existing Arkansas 255 truck route that runs north-south along Riverfront Drive north of Kelley Highway.

ANOTHER ALTERNATIVE

Tuesday’s presentation also included discussing another alternative truck route alignment that City Engineering Department Director Stan Snodgrass wrote in a memo was proposed by Phil White, a local resident and member of the Fort Smith Central Business Improvement District Commission, during the latter part of the study. Halff Associates completed a basic operational analysis of this proposal with coordination with the Arkansas Department of Transportation.

A Halff Associates technical memorandum for this analysis states the Phil White Route departs from the Garrison Avenue/Second Street intersection at a skew and heads northeast to B Street, east to Fifth Street, or Arkansas 255, then south to Garrison Avenue. It then continues southward until it merges with Wheeler Avenue.

This route would be a two-lane facility, with Garrison Avenue currently being a four-lane facility, and provides “free flowing traffic moves” between the Second Street/Garrison Avenue and Fifth Street/Garrison intersections, the memorandum states.

“According to Mr. White, the purpose of the PWR is to remove trucks from Garrison Avenue ( U. S. Hwy. 64) through downtown,” the memorandum states. “The PWR would become the truck route and trucks would be restricted from using Garrison Avenue east of 2nd Street. Truck access to the north would be along 4th Street and trucks traveling south would travel along 5th Street to Wheeler Avenue.”

“One of the more problematic moves would be truck traffic wishing to travel east to Rogers Ave. This traffic would have to travel on the PWR south along 5th/Wheeler to Zero Street, then to I-540, then north to Rogers Avenue.”

Among the concerns that arose during Halff Associates’ coordination with the Department of Transportation for this analysis were the skewed signalized intersection at Second Street near the base of the U. S. 64 bridge, driver confusion and safety, according to the memorandum. The alternative would cost about $ 4.5 million to implement.

White also reportedly spoke to all the property and business owners along the proposed route, the memorandum states. All of them support the alternative with one exception. It has also garnered the support of others, including OK Foods and Tyson Foods.

The board of directors had the opportunity to weigh in on the study and White’s proposal on Tuesday. In regard to the latter, for example, At-Large Position 6 Director Kevin Settle suggested, instead of a traffic signal at the skewed intersection at Second Street, that there be a physical barrier directing traffic from the U.S. 64 bridge onto the proposed route and preventing it from getting on to Garrison Avenue.

Geffken said the city participated in a stakeholder meeting on Dec. 7 with State Highway Commissioner Keith Gibson; Lorie Tudor, director of the Department of Transportation; Central Business Improvement District commissioners; local state legislators and others. The purpose of this meeting was to begin the discussion regarding a second bridge study.

“… I think this plan and Phil’s alternative have really been a good driving force behind ArDOT wanting to look at our downtown issues related to trucks on Garrison and how we can adjust that, and, hopefully, find a way that we can move trucks and provide, hopefully, even better access for our trucking community to be able to get to their final destination,” Geffken said.

After the meeting, Geffken explained that the Department of Transportation will conduct a study of the potential to build a second bridge in the west side of Fort Smith to help alleviate truck traffic coming into the downtown area.

“… What we’re trying to do is to help alleviate the difficulty of driving through the downtown, the issue to our roads,” Geffken said. “Hopefully, then, if we can move this, the city would be able to take over Garrison Avenue, so then we could do work to put in a median, put a trolley down the middle. We could do whatever we thought was necessary to continue the revitalization of downtown.”