GRIDLOCK GURU : I-540 exit onto Cato worrisome
Posted on Friday, May 9, 2008
It’s not often that a public official throws up his hands in frustration because he didn’t have enough pull to get something done and beckons for help.
The Guru, of course, is glad to help Washington County Judge Jerry Hunton this week get answers about Interstate 540 ’s Cato Springs Road exit in south Fayetteville.
After The Guru gives a hand to the needy honcho Hunton, he’ll help his readers on the Don Tyson Parkway project in Springdale.
Question: Hunton believes drivers northbound on I-540 who exit at Cato Springs Road need to do a better job of yielding to drivers on Arkansas 265. The Arkansas 265 drivers have the right of way, but you wouldn’t know it by the way I-540 drivers exit the interstate. The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department should make some sort of change, Hunton said.
“A stop sign might be the only thing to do,” Hunton said.
Answer: Joe Shipman, the Highway Department’s district engineer, asked traffic investigators to evaluate the area and see if something needs to be changed based on Hunton’s inquiry.
Shipman acknowledged the I-540 / Arkansas 265 area is tricky. People yielding at Arkansas 265 after exiting I-540 are close to those already on Arkansas 265 who want to go south on U. S. 71 toward Fayetteville Municipal Airport, Drake Field.
It takes traffic investigators about a month to evaluate areas and decide if changes are needed, Shipman said.
Q: “Can you shed some light on the nightmare called road construction at the intersection of Carley Road and Oaklawn Drive in Springdale ?” writes Rick Segalla of Springdale. “When might we expect a conclusion to this royal mess ? The light poles are up but no road bed.” A: It’s going to be a few more weeks before that traffic signal operates at the intersection on Don Tyson Parkway, said Tom Webb, a manager for Construction Dynamics Co., the company overseeing the project for the city.
It’s a four-way stop with only stop signs for now.
Traffic on Oaklawn Drive was diverted about eight days ago onto a gravel road that will become the Tyson Parkway’s path. The curbs and gutters are up, but it won’t be paved until the week of May 19, Webb said.
The signals won’t begin functioning until after that.
The Guru knows a bit about other aspects of the parkway, the east-west road meant to pull all Springdale traffic off Sunset Avenue (U. S. 412 ) so The Guru can coast to work on Sunset at sunrise.
Motorists already can drive from 48 th Street to Carley Road on the parkway, but it’ll be fall before the section between Carley and Johnson Road opens.
A small section of the parkway is open east of Johnson Road near the Tyson Foods headquarters, but it’ll be fall before drivers can take the parkway from 48 th Street near I-540 to U. S. 71 Business (Thompson Street ) then Turner Street, the first major road east of Thompson.
The parkway won’t reach Arkansas 265 until next spring. Robert J. Smith, aka The Guru, writes on traffic issues in Northwest Arkansas each Friday. He can be reached at gridlockguru @arkansasonline. com or www. nwanews. com / gridlockguru.
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