Abstract:
Conway, Arkansas is a rapidly growing urban center of nearly 45,000 located northwest of Little Rock- North Little Rock. State Highway 60/Dave Ward Drive, on the south side of town is in the city’s high growth corridor and was slated for widening from a two-lane rural design to a five-lane urban facility. The 4.2 mile project was already partially developed with a mixture of older semi-rural uses and newer suburban development, both commercial and residential. In a city whose street system still reflects its small town origins, SH 60 is the city’s primary east-west arterial. It also faces intense commercial development pressure in the near future, beginning with the recently completed Wal Mart Supercenter, the city’s second. The MPO and the Mayor of Conway saw SH 60 as an opportunity to develop the roadway to a higher design standard, both aesthetically and functionally. A key point in the design debate was that METRO 2020, the long-range metropolitan transportation plan, did not allow construction of a facility with continuous center turn lanes. In the face of vocal business opposition, the Conway City Council gave its tentative support to a median-divided facility, if a way could be found to mitigate the impact on existing businesses. The significant increase in capacity and safety of a median-divided facility over a five-lane roadway swayed the Council. The MPO then met with individual property owners in the corridor to discuss issues and possible mitigation. Working with the city staff, the state DOT design engineers and affected businesses, the MPO agreed to fund approximately $0.8 million of the project for ROW and mitigation. In addition, the city, the state DOT and the MPO signed a precedent setting, three-party access management agreement for the corridor. The plan specifies median breaks, curb cuts and joint-access agreements for the project. The specifics of the access management plan can only be changed with unanimous agreement of the three parties – the City, the Arkansas Highway Commission and the MPO Board.
