I-49 in Arkansas

[US71]

FWIW: Northwest Arkansas Metropolitan Area: Benton, Washington, Madison Counties in Arkansas, McDonald County in Missouri.

[O Tamandua]

FWIW: Northwest Arkansas Metropolitan Area: Benton, Washington, Madison Counties in Arkansas, McDonald County in Missouri.

Also: Fort Smith Metropolitan Area: Sebastian, Crawford, Franklin Counties in Arkansas, LeFlore and Sequoyah Counties in Oklahoma.  With a completed I-49 (between NWA and FSM) I don't expect a combined Metro, but I do expect a Combined Statistical Area (like Little Rock and Pine Bluff currently have).  Between Northwest Arkansas and Fort Smith right now, they have right at 800,000 people.

[US71]

FWIW: Northwest Arkansas Metropolitan Area: Benton, Washington, Madison Counties in Arkansas, McDonald County in Missouri.

Also: Fort Smith Metropolitan Area: Sebastian, Crawford, Franklin Counties in Arkansas, LeFlore and Sequoyah Counties in Oklahoma.  With a completed I-49 (between NWA and FSM) I don't expect a combined Metro, but I do expect a Combined Statistical Area (like Little Rock and Pine Bluff currently have).  Between Northwest Arkansas and Fort Smith right now, they have right at 800,000 people.

Most of the TV News in Fort Smith these days comes from Fayetteville/NWA with less emphasis on Fort Smith. 20 years ago, it was the opposite until they decided they needed to report more from "Piggy Land".

[O Tamandua]

FWIW: Northwest Arkansas Metropolitan Area: Benton, Washington, Madison Counties in Arkansas, McDonald County in Missouri.

Also: Fort Smith Metropolitan Area: Sebastian, Crawford, Franklin Counties in Arkansas, LeFlore and Sequoyah Counties in Oklahoma.  With a completed I-49 (between NWA and FSM) I don't expect a combined Metro, but I do expect a Combined Statistical Area (like Little Rock and Pine Bluff currently have).  Between Northwest Arkansas and Fort Smith right now, they have right at 800,000 people.

Most of the TV News in Fort Smith these days comes from Fayetteville/NWA with less emphasis on Fort Smith. 20 years ago, it was the opposite until they decided they needed to report more from "Piggy Land".

US71, I didn't want to deviate much more from highway matters but since you brought it up (and I think this is germane to I-49):

- 20+ years ago, Benton County, AR wasn't even in the Fort Smith/Fayetteville market, but the Joplin, MO/Pittsburg, KS one.  I actually knew a sales manager for Channel 5 in FSM who was fighting to BRING Benton County into what was the Fort Smith Fayetteville DMA (still is by some definitions).
- ...and here's where the bizarre stuff starts.  The NBC affiliate has closed their studio in Fort Smith even as they moved into palatial (by comparison to 20 years ago) offices in hi-rises both in Fayetteville and Rogers.  Why shouldn't they? (Not said as a smart aleck comment, but rather statement of fact.)  NWA is projected to be 1 million people strong in a few decades.  By comparison, FSM is "only" projected to get as big as NWA was 12 years ago "if" I-49 is completed.  (I personally agree with you that it is a stupid move to close an FSM office in this market, because I-49 is coming and it IS going to transform Fort Smith.  Already is, actually.)
- That being said, I think you'll find very few, if any, markets that have "flipped" in America like this TV DMA market has...with the "center of gravity" moving from what was the largest metro area in the market for multiple decades to a county that wasn't even IN the market less than 3 decades ago.
- Plus another thing...most metro areas have their entire metro area within a TV DMA.  As you noted above, McDonald County, MO is in NWA's metro, but it's still in the Joplin-Pittsburg DMA!! If Adair and Delaware Counties are added anytime soon, (and Siloam Springs metro area clearly is partially in Delaware County, OK), they will still be in the Tulsa DMA!  Carroll County, AR (and Barry County, MO) sends a lot of people across the county line (on less-than-ideal highway) to work, and Eureka Springs even has a sliver of its school district in Benton County: these two counties are in the Springfield, MO DMA.  Again, this is just beyond unusual for the most populous county in a metro area of over a half million people.  It shows how incredibly rapid the growth has been here.

And I agree that I don't think Walmart (or Tyson, or JB Hunt, certainly not the U of A flagship campus, now part of "SEC, Inc.", which is a story in itself) will ever leave here.  In Dallas/Fort Worth, they'd be just another billion dollar company.  Here, they ARE Northwest Arkansas.

Now back to I-49, which when fully completed in Arkansas will be this state's (and especially northwest Arkansas') "second 'Walmart' "...

[Road Hog]

...and then there's Tyson Foods in Springdale, which just apparently was successful in bidding for the Hillshire Farms brands.  Given Tyson's earnings reports this year coupled with Hillshire's annual sales, that would put Tyson Foods at #78 in this year's Fortune 500 to Walmarts #1 position.  As a comparison, here are some American states that have either only one or zero corporate headquarters in the 1 to 78 spots on that list (and I'm not including NWA company J.B. Hunt which is somewhere around 470 on the list):

Massachusetts (Boston)
Maryland (Baltimore)
Wisconsin (Milwaukee)
Oklahoma (Tulsa, Oklahoma City)
Louisiana (New Orleans)
Utah (Salt Lake City)
Oregon (Portland)
Missouri (St. Louis, Kansas City)
Florida (Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa/St. Petersburg, Jacksonville, Orlando)
Colorado (Denver)
Indiana (Indianapolis)
Arizona (Phoenix)
Tennessee (Memphis, Nashville)

All but one of those cities has an NFL, NBA and/or MLB franchise (many with two or all three) and the one which doesn't, Tulsa, has a WNBA team. Amazing. I just don't see an NFL, NBA, MLB or WNBA team for Arkansas in the future...too close to other successful franchises and I"m not sure the state needs one, though I'll be cheering along if it ever happens in my lifetime.) Rather, I see a metro area where some unbelievable things are happening, and which will grow even more with a completed I-49.

(BTW, Road Hog, there are multiple counties bordering Benton County, AR which aren't yet in the NWA metro area but could be added...Adair and Delaware Counties in Oklahoma have been mentioned as candidates, for example.  Those two combined are 62,000 folks, which would be a big jump right there.)

"We're No. 36" is a lot better than "Thank God for Mississippi." Not sure it's much to brag about, but it certainly is an impressive improvement.

[O Tamandua]

   ^^

[bugo]

FWIW: Northwest Arkansas Metropolitan Area: Benton, Washington, Madison Counties in Arkansas, McDonald County in Missouri.

Also: Fort Smith Metropolitan Area: Sebastian, Crawford, Franklin Counties in Arkansas, LeFlore and Sequoyah Counties in Oklahoma.  With a completed I-49 (between NWA and FSM) I don't expect a combined Metro, but I do expect a Combined Statistical Area (like Little Rock and Pine Bluff currently have).  Between Northwest Arkansas and Fort Smith right now, they have right at 800,000 people.

That's funny that LeFlore county is part of a metro area, as the southern part of the county is extremely secluded and unpopulated.

[O Tamandua]

FWIW: Northwest Arkansas Metropolitan Area: Benton, Washington, Madison Counties in Arkansas, McDonald County in Missouri.

Also: Fort Smith Metropolitan Area: Sebastian, Crawford, Franklin Counties in Arkansas, LeFlore and Sequoyah Counties in Oklahoma.  With a completed I-49 (between NWA and FSM) I don't expect a combined Metro, but I do expect a Combined Statistical Area (like Little Rock and Pine Bluff currently have).  Between Northwest Arkansas and Fort Smith right now, they have right at 800,000 people.

That's funny that LeFlore county is part of a metro area, as the southern part of the county is extremely secluded and unpopulated.

Indeed.  Due to its immense size, the northernmost tip of the county abuts downtown Fort Smith; the southernmost contains some of the highest points of American land between the Appalachians and the Rockies, and is removed from the Texas border by one county and (technically) from the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex by only two counties.

[bugo]

Both LeFlore and McCurtain counties are quite large.  Neither one of them, however, can hold a candle to the 2300 square mile Osage County, the largest in the state.

[O Tamandua]

Road Hog (and I WILL make this relevant to future I-49/Texas I-69), I'm guessing your comment about being "36th" was in regards to Arkansas' educational progress, when it used to be ranked last or next to (Mississippi) last in measures on that field for pre-college education.

Frankly, if you're quoting a survey from somewhere, 49 to 36 is quite a jump for Arkansas if true, though still far from #1.

That being said, here's an article on the new generation of national- and global-reach entrepreneurs in northwest Arkansas, and why they're here.  I can assure you,  this ain't your father's (maybe not even your oldest brother's, if you've had one) Arkansas, and people like this won't be keen on subpar schools. (They don't have to be...many of the schools up here are doing some amazing things, and have some amazing grads they're turning out.)  The one thing...this article is talking about northwest Arkansas' growth now and the subpar highway structure...wait until they unexpectedly get slammed with traffic between Canada/the Great Lakes/Minneapolis-Kansas City and the Gulf Coast/Houston-New Orleans/Mexico with a completed I-49/Texas I-69:

[US71]

Now back to I-49, which when fully completed in Arkansas will be this state's (and especially northwest Arkansas') "second 'Walmart' "...

I thought that was Tyson Foods, especially considering they just bought Hillshire Farms. I can see I-49 benefiting Wal_Mart or Tyson, but I don't see the highway as a new industry.

[O Tamandua]

Now back to I-49, which when fully completed in Arkansas will be this state's (and especially northwest Arkansas') "second 'Walmart' "...

I thought that was Tyson Foods, especially considering they just bought Hillshire Farms. I can see I-49 benefiting Wal_Mart or Tyson, but I don't see the highway as a new industry.

1.  That map Grzrd furnished yesterday from Texas, on "their" I-69, empties out into Arkansas.  Yes, it will go to Shreveport, too (and then crisscross across Arkansas, too, if that ever gets built).  The main route from Arkansas from East Texas/Houston, the three Mexican interstate points closest to Mexico City to the upper south, midwest and upper east coast from Richmond north will be through Arkansas.

2.  The "Minnie/Winnie/New/Hou" corridor is not a funnel, but an hourglass.  Hate to talk about "hourglass-shaped figures", but if we were Northwest Arkansas will be the "belly button of the hourglass", not only between the "upper funnel" out of Kansas City and the "lower funnel" out of Shreveport/Texarkana, but also between I-44 and I-40.  No, not every route is feasible (doubt traffic would suddenly switch from Oklahoma City off I-44 to I-40/I-49/I-44, for example) but this completed route is going to see traffic from multiple areas converge on the state, much of it through NWA.

3.  It's been chronicled ad infinitum, but there's A) the biggest ports in America (Texas/Louisiana gulf coasts), B) now biggest goods export area in the country (Houston), C) Panama Canal Widening (will move much though certainly not all existing california traffic to the aforementioned ports), D) biggest port on the great lakes (Duluth/Superior) and a whole bunch of other things that are putting an economic bullseye squarely on Arkansas with this completed corridor.

U S 71, I remember a newspaper story on how Fort Smith is projected alone to grow as big as NWA with a completed I-49.  And yes, we can make surveys and studies say whatever we want.  But frankly, I fail to understand why this particular corridor wasn't built as an interstate a long time ago.  I really don't.

And I do think there is the potential for so many benefits economically that, yes, this could be Arkansas' "second Walmart".

[O Tamandua]

Now Buzzfeed has bought into the hype.  Fayetteville's cramped, musty (but wonderful) Dickson Street Bookstore has been listed among "17 bookstores (throughout the world) that will literally change your life".

[US71]

Heard that on KUAF-NPR

MB886

[US71]

Now back to I-49, which when fully completed in Arkansas will be this state's (and especially northwest Arkansas') "second 'Walmart' "...

I thought that was Tyson Foods, especially considering they just bought Hillshire Farms. I can see I-49 benefiting Wal_Mart or Tyson, but I don't see the highway as a new industry.

1.  That map Grzrd furnished yesterday from Texas, on "their" I-69, empties out into Arkansas.  Yes, it will go to Shreveport, too (and then crisscross across Arkansas, too, if that ever gets built).  The main route from Arkansas from East Texas/Houston, the three Mexican interstate points closest to Mexico City to the upper south, midwest and upper east coast from Richmond north will be through Arkansas.

2.  The "Minnie/Winnie/New/Hou" corridor is not a funnel, but an hourglass.  Hate to talk about "hourglass-shaped figures", but if we were Northwest Arkansas will be the "belly button of the hourglass", not only between the "upper funnel" out of Kansas City and the "lower funnel" out of Shreveport/Texarkana, but also between I-44 and I-40.  No, not every route is feasible (doubt traffic would suddenly switch from Oklahoma City off I-44 to I-40/I-49/I-44, for example) but this completed route is going to see traffic from multiple areas converge on the state, much of it through NWA.

3.  It's been chronicled ad infinitum, but there's A) the biggest ports in America (Texas/Louisiana gulf coasts), B) now biggest goods export area in the country (Houston), C) Panama Canal Widening (will move much though certainly not all existing california traffic to the aforementioned ports), D) biggest port on the great lakes (Duluth/Superior) and a whole bunch of other things that are putting an economic bullseye squarely on Arkansas with this completed corridor.

U S 71, I remember a newspaper story on how Fort Smith is projected alone to grow as big as NWA with a completed I-49.  And yes, we can make surveys and studies say whatever we want.  But frankly, I fail to understand why this particular corridor wasn't built as an interstate a long time ago.  I really don't.

And I do think there is the potential for so many benefits economically that, yes, this could be Arkansas' "second Walmart".

It wasn't built mostly due to money. Getting FtChaffee land for cheap helped. Plus Ft Smith as a whole is sort of a closed society...they don't like strangers.
Maybe they expected 71 to be upgraded eventually, but Arkansas is always short on money. If Mr Hammerschmidt had stayed around longer, maybe something would have been done sooner.

[bjrush]

Time for the I-540 signage scavenger hunt!

Two in Cave Springs at the Hwy 264/Hwy 112 junction as of yesterday

[O Tamandua]

Now back to I-49, which when fully completed in Arkansas will be this state's (and especially northwest Arkansas') "second 'Walmart' "...

I thought that was Tyson Foods, especially considering they just bought Hillshire Farms. I can see I-49 benefiting Wal_Mart or Tyson, but I don't see the highway as a new industry.

1.  That map Grzrd furnished yesterday from Texas, on "their" I-69, empties out into Arkansas.  Yes, it will go to Shreveport, too (and then crisscross across Arkansas, too, if that ever gets built).  The main route from Arkansas from East Texas/Houston, the three Mexican interstate points closest to Mexico City to the upper south, midwest and upper east coast from Richmond north will be through Arkansas.

2.  The "Minnie/Winnie/New/Hou" corridor is not a funnel, but an hourglass.  Hate to talk about "hourglass-shaped figures", but if we were Northwest Arkansas will be the "belly button of the hourglass", not only between the "upper funnel" out of Kansas City and the "lower funnel" out of Shreveport/Texarkana, but also between I-44 and I-40.  No, not every route is feasible (doubt traffic would suddenly switch from Oklahoma City off I-44 to I-40/I-49/I-44, for example) but this completed route is going to see traffic from multiple areas converge on the state, much of it through NWA.

3.  It's been chronicled ad infinitum, but there's A) the biggest ports in America (Texas/Louisiana gulf coasts), B) now biggest goods export area in the country (Houston), C) Panama Canal Widening (will move much though certainly not all existing california traffic to the aforementioned ports), D) biggest port on the great lakes (Duluth/Superior) and a whole bunch of other things that are putting an economic bullseye squarely on Arkansas with this completed corridor.

U S 71, I remember a newspaper story on how Fort Smith is projected alone to grow as big as NWA with a completed I-49.  And yes, we can make surveys and studies say whatever we want.  But frankly, I fail to understand why this particular corridor wasn't built as an interstate a long time ago.  I really don't.

And I do think there is the potential for so many benefits economically that, yes, this could be Arkansas' "second Walmart".

It wasn't built mostly due to money. Getting FtChaffee land for cheap helped. Plus Ft Smith as a whole is sort of a closed society...they don't like strangers.
Maybe they expected 71 to be upgraded eventually, but Arkansas is always short on money. If Mr Hammerschmidt had stayed around longer, maybe something would have been done sooner.

Good point.

Then again, there's also the fact that Shreveport and Texarkana weren't linked by interstate, either, for the longest time.  And that there was no interstate straight south from Kansas City for the longest time, either.

I think we've talked here before about Arthur Stilwell (above) founder of the Kansas City Southern Railroad (which I-49 south of Kansas City to Shreveport follows the route of - strangely, though acquisition the new KCS route to Laredo follows roughly the path of Texas I-69).  He connected dots before others did both about the shortest route from Kansas City to the gulf of Mexico plus the future importance of Mexico in our transportation system.  Possibly a paranoid schizophrenic (Mr. Stilwell claimed he got a lot of his ideas from "brownies" or "fairies"), the man had a clue what this route could be.  For a long time the KCS was called "the haywire" and was at best a middleweight railroad, frequently underfunded, mentioned as a takeover target.  Now, it's an incredibly critical railroad (helped by its acquisition of what's now called "The Meridian Speedway", the best rr route between Atlanta and D/FW) linking Kansas City to the Pacific coast at the emerging Mexican seaport of Lazaro Cardenas.

But even he wouldn't have known about Walmart/Tyson/JB Hunt and the explosive growth of NWA, or that Texas would be America's second biggest state not only in size but population some day, or several other things.  Part of what we see happening is because this area is indeed strategic as Mr. Stilwell envisioned, yet part of it is because of things no one in the 1960s (when much of our interstate system was being drawn up and built) or earlier could likely have seen.  That's just how things work.

[bugo]

Those TO I-540 signs are still technically correct,  because that is the way you would go if you wanted to get to I-540.

[Arkansastravelguy]

Those TO I-540 signs are still technically correct,  because that is the way you would go if you wanted to get to I-540.

I wonder if those are AHTD signs or owned by the city or county


iPhone

[bugo]

AHTD.

[roadman65]

I was noticing on US 71B in Bentonville at the junction with previous I-540 and present day I-49 and US 71 from GSV, there was no mention of its parent route there going NB except in text going NB with a "TO US 71" at the ramp there.

Hope with the new I-49 signs they corrected that mistake.

[M86]

Time for the I-540 signage scavenger hunt!

Story about it in the local news:   http://www.4029tv.com/news/Old-I-540-signs-create-confusion/26488828

So, AHTD says that they have a sign log... And it's a folder (paper or electronic?)...  And if it's district level, this doesn't surprise me... XNA is in Benton County, and the district transportation HQ is in Harrison.   Any decently run large organization/business creates an inventory of everything, and it's not done on paper.  I just hope change will happen.

I just wish I could go in and fix all of this crap with AHTD... Especially this, because documentation and inventory.  Sorry, I'm done venting.

[O Tamandua]

Grzrd, among other things, with this sales tax in August the State of Missouri is proposing 6-laning I-70 between St. Louis and Kansas City.  Shee-yeesh.

I-49 isn't mentioned in the above story (which is pretty much the same one I read in the Springfield News-Leader today, too), but maybe it's because compared with the aforementioned project finishing a few-mile stretch of I-49 from south of Pineville down to the state line seems like a piece of cake.

[Arkansastravelguy]

Grzrd, among other things, with this sales tax in August the State of Missouri is proposing 6-laning I-70 between St. Louis and Kansas City.  Shee-yeesh.

I-49 isn't mentioned in the above story (which is pretty much the same one I read in the Springfield News-Leader today, too), but maybe it's because compared with the aforementioned project finishing a few-mile stretch of I-49 from south of Pineville down to the state line seems like a piece of cake.

Constructing the Bella Vista bypass is on the draft list


iPhone

[robbones]

Does anybody know what section of 49 going to be constructed when Barling to Greenwood is complete?

IMO they should just work on the Crawford County section next to have a 540 detour and possibly relieve some traffic off of there.