By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Special to the Leader
Road improvements in Jackson-ville, Sherwood and Cabot remain high on the agenda for Metroplan, which accepted Lonoke’s membership at its Wednesday meeting.
The group also announced the postponement of stricter ozone regulations because of the cost.
The four-laning of Graham Road is among a handful of small, but important, area road projects listed on the Transportation Improvement Program for work between now and the end of 2012, according to Metroplan.
Long on tap, Jacksonville has acquired the right of way and most utility relocation is complete along a one-mile stretch of Graham Road running from Oak Street to Loop Road, according to Metroplan’s Casey Covington, director of the Central Arkansas Regional Transportation Study.
Covington said bids would be let for the project this fall and it is expected to cost between $5 million and $7 million.
Cabot is working with Metroplan, hoping to get a traffic signal at the intersection of state Hwy. 38 and state Hwy. 367 at the north end of the city and also a right-turn lane from state Hwy. 89 onto Panther Trail at the Cabot Junior High School South, according to Mayor Bill Cypert.
Currently, there is only a single southbound lane on Hwy. 89 and at the beginning and end of the school day, vehicles dropping off or picking up students spill out into that lane, bringing traffic to a halt, he said.
Other obligated funds on the project for 2012 include:
n About $350,000 for a roundabout in Ward at the intersection of state Hwy. 367 and state Hwy. 319. Mayor Art Brooke says the city has much of the money needed and that County Judge Doug Erwin had agreed to add funds that should make the project doable. The engineering has been done and no right of way is needed, Brooke says.
n Roughly $450,000 for right of way and construction of a traffic circle at the intersection of Main Street and Harris Road in Jacksonville.
About $150,000 for planning, engineering and construction of a traffic signal at Kiehl Avenue and Oakbrooke Drive in Sherwood.
Planning and engineering for improvements of Maryland Road between state Hwy. 107 and Oakbrooke in Sherwood.
An as-of-yet undetermined project in Ward.
LONOKE CITY JOINS
On the motion of Erwin, a Metroplan board member, the board unanimously approved the application of the city of Lonoke to join Metroplan, an application presented by Mayor Wayne McGee.
“The county judge said it would really be beneficial to the city to join,” McGee said after the meeting. “I don’t see how it could do anything but help.”
The city’s decades-old effort to build a second I-40 interchange, this one at state Hwy. 89 on the west side of Lonoke, had made great progress in the past couple of years, but has bogged down for lack of funding in a slow economy with a reluctant Congress.
McGee said the state Highway Department had completed the design work and most of the right-of-way acquisition and utility work was completed. But the project still lacked about $2 million to $3 million for construction.
Former Cong. Marion Berry “got us the first $5.4 million,” McGee said. Berry did not run for re-election.
McGee said the city had met recently with new state Highway and Transportation director Scott Bennett and with Central Arkansas’ new highway commissioner, Tom Schueck of Little Rock.
MORE STRINGENT OZONE STANDARDS DELAYED
New, more stringent ozone regulations, which had been expected to go into effect before the 2012 ozone season, have been recalled by the Obama Administration “in deference to the cost and impact on businesses in this fragile economy,” Metroplan director Jim McKenzie told the board.
Summer heat is a factor in ozone creation, and this summer the central Arkansas ozone levels exceeded the allowable limits. Even under the old levels, another such summer next year could take the area out of compliance and could result in curbs on starting or increasing certain industries in the area or new road construction.
“It is unclear whether the ozone regulations will revert to the Bush regulations of 75 parts per billion or the previous level of 85 ppb,” McKenzie said.
There was brief discussion of a bridge design to replace the deteriorating Broadway Bridge over the Arkansas River joining Little Rock and North Little Rock.
Metroplan designers prefer a six-lane bridge plus a 23-foot- wide bike and pedestrian lane, while the Highway Department, largely for budgetary purposes, prefers three southbound lanes, only two northbound lanes and a 16-foot pedestrian bikeway, according to Bennett.
Covington said regardless, the bridge would be inadequate for capacity within two decades, and new to the discussion is an eventual additional river bridge from Chester Street.
