I-49 in Arkansas

[US71]

45 years ago this nation was putting men on the moon and laying down 1000 miles of Interstate highway per year. Now we can't do squat.

Nailed it!

No one wants to pay for them, anymore.

We've accumulated $15 trillion in debt as a nation over the last two presidencies. How much infrastructure could that money have built? What the tarnation did it go to?

Actually since Reagan.  It all went to corporate tax breaks so companies wouldn't move to China. /sarcasm

[NE2]

Doesn't Hilary Clinton or Donald Trump have some huge spending plan for our infrastructure? It was one of them, but I can't remember which.

Does a wall count as infrastructure?

[The Ghostbuster]

Return to talking about Interstate 49 in Arkansas, and enough about politics!

[US71]

Barring a miracle, it will likely be years before it's complete.  My 2pfennigs.

[Wayward Memphian]

AHTD's plans for the mess that is the Rogers interchange:



http://talkbusiness.net/2016/10/ahtd-reveals-plans-for-23-million-rogers-interchange-on-interstate-49/

[robbones]

http://www.nwahomepage.com/news/i-49fulbright-construction-whats-it-for

AHTD gives a deadline of January 3, 2018 and a fine of $200,000 per day for the contractor of it goes beyond then.

LG-H634

[bjrush]

Didn't Crafton Tull just screw up at Lowell exit? There are blacked out pavement markings everywhere around Dixieland. How did they end up with this project?

[US71]

Didn't Crafton Tull just screw up at Lowell exit? There are blacked out pavement markings everywhere around Dixieland. How did they end up with this project?

Lowest bidder?

[bjrush]

Design work is "qualification based" selection

[razorback0308]

Why aren't there 2 lanes getting on I49 south at exit 78? Is there not enough room with the 412 bypass?

[US71]

Why aren't there 2 lanes getting on I49 south at exit 78? Is there not enough room with the 412 bypass?

That interchange has always been a clusterf*ck. I don't think they ever planned it to handle all the traffic it has. Can you imagine a 2-lane backwater highway leading to a "major metropolitan airport"?

[bjrush]

Why aren't there 2 lanes getting on I49 south at exit 78? Is there not enough room with the 412 bypass?

Two lanes merging into two lanes of Interstate? Doesn't sound like a good idea

[razorback0308]

Why aren't there 2 lanes getting on I49 south at exit 78? Is there not enough room with the 412 bypass?

Two lanes merging into two lanes of Interstate? Doesn't sound like a good idea

You're thinking short term and I'm thinking long term. The third lane will be reopened at some point. Leave the second lane blocked off until I49 has the three lanes opened again. I bet one year from now the JB traffic would be appreciative.

[US71]

Why aren't there 2 lanes getting on I49 south at exit 78? Is there not enough room with the 412 bypass?

I've seen it. Two lanes merging onto the highway, becoming one, finally merging into the rest of the highway. I don't see that as possible at 264. I see more a "drop lane" (merge, then exit) from 264 to the 412 Bypass and Byp 412 to 264.

Yet AHTD had an opportunity to do a drop lane with the Tyson Parkway and US 412/Sunset Street, but didn't.
Two lanes merging into two lanes of Interstate? Doesn't sound like a good idea

[lordsutch]

Private entity builds and maintains tollway. Like that worked so well for Texas.

It's actually worked out great for Texas. The people who bought the bonds, not so much.

[M86]

AHTD's plans for the mess that is the Rogers interchange:



http://talkbusiness.net/2016/10/ahtd-reveals-plans-for-23-million-rogers-interchange-on-interstate-49/

The AHTD is finally, uh, coming into the 21st Century.

[cjk374]

AHTD's plans for the mess that is the Rogers interchange:



http://talkbusiness.net/2016/10/ahtd-reveals-plans-for-23-million-rogers-interchange-on-interstate-49/

The AHTD is finally, uh, coming into the 21st Century.

Am I reading this picture right? Do all of those ramps meet above I-49 into one massive holy-shit intersection?

[Anthony_JK]

AHTD's plans for the mess that is the Rogers interchange:



http://talkbusiness.net/2016/10/ahtd-reveals-plans-for-23-million-rogers-interchange-on-interstate-49/

The AHTD is finally, uh, coming into the 21st Century.

Am I reading this picture right? Do all of those ramps meet above I-49 into one massive holy-shit intersection?

In a way, yes...but that's just the left turn movements. This is a classic Single Point Urban Interchange (SPUI).

[cjk374]

AHTD's plans for the mess that is the Rogers interchange:



http://talkbusiness.net/2016/10/ahtd-reveals-plans-for-23-million-rogers-interchange-on-interstate-49/

The AHTD is finally, uh, coming into the 21st Century.

Am I reading this picture right? Do all of those ramps meet above I-49 into one massive holy-shit intersection?

In a way, yes...but that's just the left turn movements. This is a classic Single Point Urban Interchange (SPUI).

Oh ok. This is the first SPUI I have ever seen.

[Road Hog]

I navigate a SPUI almost daily (it's a modified one with "Texas U-Turns" at Central and Eldorado in McKinney). Piece of cake.

[M86]

I moved out of NWA several months ago.  I loved the area, but I can't say that I miss the traffic and horrible planning, at multiple levels.

This SPUI at the Walton/Walnut exit is great to see, and I approve.  But what AHTD totally messed up is the interchange to the north (Exit 86).  They handed that over to the City of Bentonville, in combination with the new interchange planned shortly to the north of that (8th Street).

Exit 85 (SE 14th St/Hudson Road) will be improved, but they failed with the plans.  I talked with the head guy with the City of Bentonville's Transportation Department when I lived there.  I asked about the plans.  He basically told me that Exit 85 will be like the US 412 exit in Springdale, in terms of turns lanes.  Sigh.  And I viewed the plans.

Exit 85 is very close to the dividing line of Bentonville and Rogers.  And that interchange has insane congestion on both sides of I-49.  I asked him about the problem of the congestion on the east-side of the interchange.  He never responded.  The traffic backing up on the Rogers side is a daily issue.

That new 8th Street interchange is not going to fix anything on the east side of the I-49/Exit 86 interchange.

AHTD, you have failed again.  Why would you give the City of Bentonville total control over the Exit 86 and the new interchange planned to the north?

[US71]

AHTD, you have failed again.  Why would you give the City of Bentonville total control over the Exit 86 and the new interchange planned to the north?

Wal-Mart

[bjrush]

Bentonville chipped in millions to get a say in the design

Money talks

[US71]

Money talks

and Wal-Mart is very chatty </sarcasm>

[bjrush]

M86, who did you talk to in Bville? Mike Churchwell worked for AHTD for 20+ years. Really their mayor drives a lot of what they do