Highland Drive/Nettleton Avenue Overpass Moving Forward

A $15 million plan to build an overpass across one of Jonesboro’s busiest intersections has started to take shape, with some preliminary work already being done.

As a train moved through the area, city and state officials, along with a project manager for Bridgewater and Associates, stood at the corner of Highland Drive and Nettleton Avenue Monday morning (May 18) to kick off the project.

The project, which is expected to take about three years to complete, started moving last fall after the city of Jonesboro received a $1.2 million federal TIGER, or Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, grant.

The grant will be used to do an environmental study for the project at the intersection, which links Jonesboro’s industrial park to the area near the Mall at Turtle Creek.

Supporters of the plan have said it would help alleviate traffic and safety problems at the intersection, with Nettleton High School nearby.

Jonesboro Mayor Harold Perrin said last year that the safety issue was detected after city officials put in a video camera in March 2013 at the intersection.

“It is a real major intersection. It sat there blocked for 58 minutes one day. The ambulances and school buses had to find a way to turn around,” Perrin said last September. “I thought about the fact that the trains are a mile long. What would happen if a kid were to walk in between those train (cars)? I’d hate to think. He could get dragged off.”

PLAN
Azad Shahriar, the project manager for Bridgewater and Associates, said officials have already begun doing survey work for the project.

While nothing is set in stone, Shahriar said plans call for two bridges to be built as part of the overpass. Officials are working on a plan to keep the existing railroad in place while trying to keep the costs of purchasing right of way as low as humanly possible, Shahriar said.

There are currently parking lots and gas stations on both sides of the intersection facing Highland Drive, while an empty lot is on the other side of the railroad crossing.

The design and environmental study are expected to be done by May 2016.

Once a company is selected, it will take around two years to build, Shahriar said.

Shahriar said his company will be working with state highway officials on the project as well.

“It is a challenging intersection. But once it is completed, it will be a lot safer,” Shahriar said.

Highway Commissioner Alec Farmer said the project is beneficial to the area.

“It is another opportunity for the state and municipality to partner up,” Farmer said, noting the work helps stretch taxpayer dollars even further. “Infrastructure creates jobs, promotes economic development and investments in our city, state and country.”

Officials are also working on a plan to expand South Caraway Road.

Construction workers have already begun working on expand the road to five lanes, from south of the U.S. 63 overpass to LaTourette Street, by building a new bridge.

The road, one of the busiest in Jonesboro, is five lanes from Washington Avenue near ASU, to north of the overpass.

However, the five lanes shrinks to two lanes at the overpass leading to traffic problems, officials have said.