The Piggyback Trail

Northwest Arkansas may soon get its own regional intermodal authority.

Cliff McKinney, the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department’s intermodal transportation planner, met April 29 with some Northwest Arkansas mayors, chamber of commerce members and county judges to discuss that possibility.

The idea is only in its infant stages, but there was discussion about forming an ad hoc committee that would investigate the possibility of “piggybacking” the area’s modes of transportation.

Apparently there’s talk of using state funds to better link an Arkansas River port near Van Buren and Fort Smith with the rest of Northwest Arkansas. The Arkansas & Missouri Railroad, Interstate 540 and the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport would be used to bind the state’s northwest corridor into an elaborate transportation network.

The state highway department plans to conduct a study out of Springdale on the A&M Railroad and how it could be a major player in the network.

One of the people who met with McKinney likened these preliminary talks to the formation of the beginning of the Beaver Lake Water District in the late 1950s.