Bypass Should Ease Traffic Along U.S. 412 in Springdale

Springdale’s fortune and folly is that it’s situated right in the heart of Northwest Arkansas. The city’s primary east-west artery is clogged by dense traffic, but a bypass could bring relief before 2010.

By mid-summer, one of four potential east-west corridors penciled in north of Springdale will be chosen as the $200 million U.S. Highway 412 bypass.

Jonathan Barnett, state highway commissioner for the Third U.S. Congressional District, said the resulting four-lane loop will be as big of an economic engine for the area as the opening of Interstate 540, the Two-Ton rural water project or the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport.

“This will be a tremendous shot in the arm,” Barnett said. “The 412 bypass will relieve Springdale’s congestion and help not just the economic development there, but also in Bethel Heights, Lowell, Rogers, Elm Springs and Tontitown.”

The prospective bypass routes change daily, but the distance is estimated to be 15-20 miles. Field environmental analysis crews with the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department are tromping through 1,000-foot wide swaths carved by laser surveys to determine the most feasible corridor (See map).

While the exact corridor has not been picked, the bypass will for sure begin east of Butterfield Coach Road in Springdale and arc north. It will turn west in Bethel Heights and curve west of Tontitown.

Any of the four variations will overlap an access spur to the regional airport that’s farther along its environmental study process. The two-lane access road’s corridor will be chosen in March.

The plan, said Barnett and regional airport Staff Director Scott Van Laningham, is to coordinate efforts and save money.

“We’re building an access road and they’re building a bypass, so we’re proceeding like we’re building all the way to I-540,” Van Laningham said. “But so we don’t end up with two separate roads, we’re meeting regularly with the highway department to compare notes … We’re trying to do what’s smart.”

Roads Paved With Gold?

Price estimates for the airport’s access road, which could be completed by 2005, run from $35 million-$40 million. The AHTD’s estimate of $200 million for a Springdale 412 bypass doesn’t include right-of-way acquisitions which could prove costly given the area’s booming real estate market.

Local Realtors estimate a “fair market value” for rural pasture land in south Benton County is $3,000-$5,000 per acre depending on the property’s topography. That rises to $10,000-$40,000 along 412 through Springdale, although realtors say lately that reflects the “asking” and not necessarily “getting” price.

“This will be the most expensive right-of-way acquisition in the state’s history,” Barnett said. “We don’t have appraised values yet for all of the prospective bypass area, but we know land in Northwest Arkansas is certainly a premium.”

U.S. Rep. Asa Hutchinson, R-Arkansas, helped get the airport’s leg of the project in the most recent federal intermodal highway package, which resulted in $16 million in funding.

“We’re going to issue bonds that we’ll repay for the rest,” Van Laningham said. The airport has already spent $1.2 million toward the access road project, including $1 million for an environmental study.

Van Laningham said the airport is considering several options to raise revenue including charging a ground transportation fee to enter the airport premises. The current parking fee booth could be moved for that purpose and used to collect $1 per vehicle for airport access.

The bypass project’s funding is more difficult to get at, since most of it is still in the works. Randy Ort, public affairs officer for the AHTD, said to date it has officially been appropriated $1.1 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s “corridors and borders” program. Additional funding is being sought through the state’s three-year Statewide Transportation Improvement Program plan, which may be viewed on the Internet at www.ahtd.state.ar.us.

Lay of the Landowners

Officials working on both projects said there’s no way to gauge what landowners will fall in the paths of the bypass and access road, especially since neither route has been finalized. But Van Laningham and Barnett estimated more than 100 medium-to-small parcels of land will have to be acquired.

No one particular landowner is believed to have a large enough tract near the proposed corridors that it would be intersected by a significant amount of highway. An appraisal process for right-of-way will begin as soon as routes are chosen.

“We’ll have to go through the early appraisal process,” Van Laningham said. “Then we’ll get second appraisals, review them, and if it comes to it we’ll use our power of imminent domain.”

The corridor widths will be narrowed from 1,000 feet to 300 feet after a record of decision is issued following the environmental studies. Avoiding barns, houses, farms and environmentally sensitive areas will determine the routes.

Harold Beaver, the AHTD’s District 4 engineer in Fort Smith, is responsible for all construction on state highways that uses federal dollars. He said no matter how diligently the roads are constructed, there will be some drawbacks. The overall benefits, he said, make it worth pursuing.

“It’s not possible to build a road of this type without both negatives and positives for people,” Beaver said. “Even if we were building a highway out in the middle of nothing, that would still affect the nothingness, I guess.”

City Wants Head Room

Philip Taldo, a co-owner and broker at Griffin Realtors in Springdale, is his city’s representative on the regional airport authority and a member of NARTS, the Northwest Arkansas Regional Transportation Study. NARTS sets priorities for federally funded road projects in Benton and Washington counties.

Taldo said for the city to really benefit from the bypass, the route must go as far north as possible.

“We don’t want to divide the north tip of the city with a bypass,” Taldo said. “An Interstate usually creates a natural border, and we need a little girth left for growth.

“It also still sticks in the craw of a lot of Springdale people that we only have two I-540 exits right now compared to towns that surround us having five or six.”

Perry Webb, president of the Springdale Chamber of Commerce, said a bypass access to Wagon Wheel Road is especially important, since the east-west throughway is probably the best existing road in north Springdale that can help traffic flow to I-540.

Patsy Christie, planning and community development director for Springdale, said the congestion at I-540 and 412 makes it hard to get in and out of nearby businesses.

“I don’t know that you can say it’s completely stifled business there, but it’s definitely had an impact,” Christie said.

Sam Mathias, owner of Mathias Properties Inc. in Springdale, owns eight shopping centers on existing 412, including Ozark Center Point Place and Skyler Center. He said the road’s congestion definitely hampers customer patronage in that area.

“During the morning and evening rush, it’s impossible to get through,” Mathias said. “The bypass relief will not come fast enough for us.”