Im catching up on the posts about 49 and the building from Ft Smith to Texarkana? What does a super 2 road mean in the building process? Im guessing its a two lane road with passing lanes added every 15 to 20 milies? or adding lanes near towns along the route? While the land will be cleared for another 2 lane road to be finished at a later date?
If Im right in guessing, Most of IH 22 in Alabama and Mississippi was done in the same order through similiar terrain. Problem is that 220 mile segment took 25+ years to complete
My guess is they'll do it like AR-530 south of Pine Bluff initially. ROW purchased and utilities moved as needed with dirt work done for the initial 2 lanes of carriageway with the elevation gradients and curve radii done to interstate specifications. The 2 lanes will have passing zones (improved sightlines due to interstate-grade geometry makes them both more numerous and longer in length generally), but likely no climb lanes for passing, unless the ultimate interstate will have them as generally the Super-2 makes up the carriageway for one of the lane sets, with the dirtwork, bridges, etc. done for the 2nd set of lanes when funds come to fruition. AR-549's Super-2 for the BVB had grade separation done from the get-go, which made the 2nd set of lanes much quicker as only bridging over roads without exits and over creeks were necessary, otherwise, it was just dirtwork, roadbed building, and paving between the overpasses, which already had the 2nd carriageway completed between the exit and entrance ramps under the overpasses as part of the exit-building in the initial Super-2 construction. Then, it was just minor work of restriping the initial Super-2 to eliminate the lines constraining passing, put the inside shoulder yellow line, removal of the crossovers for exit/entrance ramps to the Super-2 across the median with regrading, and signage movement/deployment. My guess is they'll do it like AR-530 due to funding constraints though with at-grade intersections of the crossroads and limit access between the crossroads to discourage development along the new road, other than near where there will ultimately be future exits. The part that took longest for the BVB going from Super-2 to full I-49 after funding was secured for Missouri's portion was the reworking of the roundabout at Bentonville/Bella Vista/US-71 into a SPUI exit with the mainline going over a long overpass.