Roundabout rolling forward

Construction progress slows traffic into and out of Bentonville

A lot of visible progress was made on the roundabout at the intersection of North Walton Boulevard and U.S. 71 last week.

Steve Lawrence, district engineer for District 9 with the Arkansas Highway Transportation Department, said that while the work won’t be wholly finished, he believes the roundabout should be open mid to late April. With cooperative weather, he said, it could go faster.

“The work they’ve got left to do — it’s going to be piecemeal work,” he said.

Last week’s work focused on correcting the existing road’s grade and raising the pavement, referred to as level-up work. This, he said, will leave the entire project at the same grade.

Beyond that, he said, workers are going to be installing additional curbing and drainage, though most of the pavement is now in place.

Danny Straessle, public information officer with the AHTD in Little Rock, reminded people that the roundabout is a temporary solution. The state has all the funding in place to complete the bypass once there’s something to connect to in Missouri.

The final interchange, he said, would actually make traffic in Bella Vista worse if it was installed at this time. The traffic circle will allow people to access the existing portions of the bypass, which will function as

two-lane highways, while the project moves forward.

“So when this opens,” Straessle said, “people in Gravette and southwestern Bella Vista will be able to get on the bypass and get straight to I-49.”

As lanes are shifted, and sometimes closed for short periods of time, traffic has back-up, especially heading north out of Bentonville.

Lawrence said that, in the meantime, the AHTD is working to minimize traffic problems, though they are unavoidable with the work that needs to be done.

Drivers, he said, need to be alert and aware and keep an eye out for traffic barrels and flaggers. Ideally, he said, there will be no safety issues in the construction zone.

“We appreciate everybody’s patience while we’re working on this,” Lawrence said.

Keith Bryant/ The Weekly Vista Construction workers have laid asphalt to widen the road surrounding what will become a roundabout at the intersection of U.S. 71 and North Walton Boulevard.

Keith Bryant/The Weekly Vista Construction of a traffic circle at the intersection of U.S. 71 and Walton Boulevard reduced traffic to two lanes while asphalt was laid.