IN SHORT: Access roads in Sherwood and North Little Rock make big change.
By John Hofheimer
Leader staff writer
As of 9 p.m. Tuesday, motorists moving between Hwy. 67/167 and the adjacent frontage roads on the stretch between McCain Boulevard and Wildwood Avenue no-longer face nerve-wracking and dangerous two-way traffic.
Landers Road is now one-way north, Warden Road, one-way south, so traffic entering and leaving the highway will always be merging with traffic moving that same direction.
The conversion to one-way frontage roads, by press time, came off without any major problems.
The revamped frontage roads are part of the $22.5 million project that includes widening the highway to six lanes along that stretch.
It also includes construction a a “Texas flyover” connecting the two frontage roads just north of McCain Boulevard, elevation of the highway in front of the old Sherwood Wal-Mart to allow crossover between the two one-way roads and an additional lane at Wildwood, allowing northbound traffic on Landers to come back south on Warden, according to Farrell Wilson, state Highway and Trans-portation department spokesman.
Both frontage roads will be reduced to one lane while additional work is completed, she said. The Texas Flyover won’t open for 48 hours, she said, meaning traffic at that end of the loop will have to use the existing McCain Boulevard Bridge to get from Warden to Landers Road.
The one-way frontage roads form a counterclockwise loop.
Orange barrels and electronic messages boards will help direct traffic while motorists get used to the new configuration, Wilson said.
The design of the turnaround at Five-Mile Creek does not allow traffic from McClanahan Drive to cross under the highway to travel north on Landers, Wilson said. The conversion will make the roads safer and able to carry more traffic, Wilson said.
As the main corridor in and out of central Arkansas from the north, approximately 80,000 vehicles travel the highway each day.
Wilson said work on the highway between McCain and Wildwood should be completed by the end of the summer. Bids will be let this fall for work to widen to six lanes Hwy. 67/167 from McCain to I-40 and from Wildwood to Kiehl.
