I'm just not as pessimistic about this (except for one reason*) as other.
Yesterday, there was an article in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette about this. Even with the funding issues, Dick Trammel said he thinks Missouri will come up with their funds.
According to the article, we also learned:
- The stretch of future I-49/BV Bypass from the new Highway 72 bridge southeast of the former community of Hiwasse to the new (west) Highway 72 bridge between Gravette and Hiwasse is expected to be finished (in its current state) by April 2014. That's essentially next month.
- The stretch from the west Highway 72 bridge that runs to the Rocky Dell Hollow Road (which forks into the two main west Bella Vista avenues, Glasgow and Highlands) is scheduled to be finished by the end of 2014. (And they are kicking up huge dust clouds plowing away at this particular segment.)
- The stretch from the southeast Highway 72 bridge to the future interchange with the current north end of I-540 will be finished in two years. (Wow. That's the one I've been curious to see how they will shoehorn between BV and "Bennie".)
Then I remember how Missouri had a veritable army of earth movers and Euclid dump trucks lined up for duty around 2004 when they built that last section of (current I-49) four lane in a 2-3 year span between Lanagan to south of Pineville, and how that stretch is not much longer if at all so than the one to be completed from the future BV split, also south of Pineville, to the Arkansas state line. Said last stretch will probably require a bridge or two. It's likely the Rocky Dell Hollow to MO state line segment won't take that long at all...it may be the shortest of the segments.
*The only thing that makes me pessimistic about this is that the Obama Administration thumbed its nose (according to an Arkansas Democrat Gazette article) at northwest Arkansas with the pizzly (6 million, I think it was) grant they gave for the highway construction. SW Missouri and NW Arkansas are heavily Republican districts, which means that the current leadership in Washington won't like these areas that much. I'm just hoping they don't try to stall the project, which they could do in a multitude of ways if desired, I fear.
Otherwise, this is coming together still, albeit in bits and pieces, which was always pretty much expected. But unimpeded, it might come together in just a few years.