Two road projects tie in at roundabout

A traffic feature new to the area will connect two projects the Arkansas Department of Transportation expects to begin next year.

The roundabout proposed for the junction of highways 5 and 7 will connect improvements for upper Park Avenue to the more than 5-mile, twolane extension of the King Expressway. The extension will link the junction to the expressway’s Highway 70 east interchange. McGeorge Contracting’s $75.15 million bid was the lowest of the three ArDOT opened earlier this month for the expressway project.

“Part of this project is something that we haven’t seen really in our community,” City Manager Bill Burrough, referring to the roundabout that will be built as part of the improvements to upper Park Avenue, told the Hot Springs Board of Directors recently.

“This will be about 200 feet in diameter. It’s larger than most roundabouts that you see, but we’re excited to see how that works in the community.”

The Park Avenue project will widen the road to three lanes, with a shared left turn lane, from just south of Fox Pass Cutoff to the junction of highways 5 and 7. ArDOT said earlier this year that a 2016 study determined geometric improvements to the S curve south of Fox Pass were needed to address safety.

ArDOT said last week that it’s in possession of 37 of the 102 tracts needed to widen the 4.17-mile stretch. The

project has an $11.8 million cost estimate and is scheduled to be bid next summer, depending on the progress of utility relocations, ArDOT said.

The city said it has put the relocation of its water and sewer lines out to bid. The city board awarded a $276,708 contract to Garver LLC last year to design the relocation project and determine how much of the cost was eligible for reimbursement by the state.

ArDOT will reimburse the city for costs associated with moving utility lines that are outside of ArDOT’s right of way but inside right of way needed for the widening. An agreement the city and state entered into earlier this year stipulated more than 60 percent of the $3.6 million cost will be reimbursed.

The non-reimbursable expenses are mostly related to the relocation of the sewer main extending outside the city’s corporate limits to Fountain Lake School. Much of it is in ArDOT’s existing right of way.