Rogers Readies for Traffic Flux in Real Estate Hotspot

As developers sketch plans for additions to the real estate hotspot along Interstate 540 and Champions Drive, Rogers’ city planners are paddling hard to beat the impending flood of traffic.

From simply installing traffic lights to considering another interstate interchange, transportation managers in Rogers want to stay ahead of the commercial and residential developments.

Morning and afternoon rush hours already show the first swells of congestion. At the Champions Drive exit, lines of creeping cars back up to the interstate as people access Village on the Creeks and Pinnacle Point.

Lt. Bill Carver of the Arkansas State Police said the interchange causes no more than its fair share of accidents. However, the waves of waiting cars have only begun, as the largest developments remain in various stages of plotting.

Phase 1 of Shadow Valley — Charles Reaves’ 514-acre planned unit development in Rogers that will offer retail, commercial and residential buildings — will attract a daily slew of people for business and pleasure.

Pinnacle Hills’ 10-story luxury hotel and a 70-acre site for a new Mercy Health System Inc. will also draw crowds in the coming years. A new Rogers High School facility that will serve 11th and 12th grade students will also open on the corner of Perry and Dixieland roads next fall.

The skinny county roads that encircle that area would choke on the mounting traffic, but the problem is already being solved, said Maurice Kolman, the Rogers director of transportation and planning.

“We’re trying to develop with quality,” Kolman said. “We’re building for the future.”

Pinnacle Hills Parkway will open first. When the city approves the final plat for Pinnacle Hills, which Kolman expects to happen in less than a month, crews will top out Pinnacle Hills Parkway and an extension of Northgate Road. It will offer a straighter, wider thoroughfare than Champions Drive and disperse traffic directly onto Perry Road.

Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Raymond Burns spoke of another part of the city’s plan. Designers have almost finished plotting a New Hope Road expansion that would make Arkansas Highway 94 a four-lane path. Burns said the roadwork should begin next year.

Both Kolman and Burns mentioned an additional interstate interchange as a possible eventual outcome of the area’s growing popularity.

The most cost-effective addition would be located at the Perry Road overpass, Kolman said, but he noted that it might never happen. The overpass is located about a mile south of the Champions Drive exit.

Two interstate interchanges so close together would be unique in Northwest Arkansas, but Rogers Mayor Steve Womack said the addition may be necessary.

Womack said the possibility of adding a diamond interchange with on- and off-ramps for traffic at Perry Road has been mentioned to the Arkansas Highway Department, but th agency hasn’t responded.