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I grew up in Fort Smith, and I think 540 played a larger role in NWA's population boom than people give it credit for. I can remember driving up the old 71 to go see basketball games at the college. It was such an arduous drive, and it is a VERY dangerous (yet fun) stretch of highway. People from Missouri and the river valley didn't go to NWA unless they needed to. When they finished 540, it cut the travel time down to 45 minutes and turned out to be a gorgeous drive. When I got my own wheels, me and friends used to drive up to NWA almost every weekend for the nightlife on Dickson street and at the college. The mindset was that Fayetteville had a mystique and was T-H-E party town of the area, almost like going to Las Vegas. Actually, a huge number of people do this. Sports at the college results in droves of people flocking into the city on gameday. There is a significant number of people who live in FS and commute to Fayetteville for work. There is a Shell gas station where 540 passes Rudy that has a huge parking lot next to it. Commuters that work at the same place park at that lot and carpool to NWA. It has just become so effortless to get to the area now and it's essentially turned into a "hub" for that whole area (NEOK, SWMO, NWA).
My dad's mother's family settled in Tontitown in the early 1900's and after looking at some of her old pictures of the area it's hard to believe what it's turned into. Even I can remember when there was a good 15 minute drive through farm land to Tontitown and when there was actually a distance between Fayetteville and Springdale... and I'm only 27. Now, it's all just one big metropolis.
Not to be critical because you make some good points, but distance between Fayetteville and Springdale? You do realize that the Fayetteville mall was built right on the line between the two cities? The country club immediately north of the mall is the Springdale Country Club? Now, I can remember distance between Springdale and Lowell, distance between Lowell and Rogers, distance between Rogers and Bentonville. But while the development along 71 wasn't so dense, I don't remember all that much distance between Springdale and Fayetteville.
I mean there was a distinction between the two cities, as in you could pass by where the go-kart track and furniture row are now and there wasn't much development from that point all the way up until 71 dips down under that little bridge. Don Tyson parkway and the majority of the houses around it weren't there yet. Now, unless you live in the area you will drive up 71 and have no idea that you aren't in Fayetteville anymore. I drove up in 2010 to visit some family that live a couple blocks from 71 off the Don Tyson parkway after not visiting the city in quite a few years and I didn't even recognize that area.
I was born & raised in Fayetteville. I moved away for about 6 years to North Carolina then moved back. For me the growth is nothing but positive. I recall being constantly bored growing up here and taking many trips to bigger cities, but we did not have the things we do now. Now if you try there are things to keep you busy.
I don't quite live here by choice. To make a long story short I moved back here with my then husband & got divorced. My ex loves it here & wants to make his life here. I have custody so if I want my kids to be able to continue their relationship with their dad who is still somewhat active in their lives - I need to stay nearby. I am remarried & when the kids are older we will most likely move as I agree with some of the previous posts that NWA has experienced rapid growth but most likely hit it's peak. I prefer a bigger city, but right now I have to think about the kids & I can't argue that it is a pretty safe/good place to raise children.My kids have more here than I did.
The taxes in Fayetteville are pretty high, but I can be happy when & where ever I decide to be .....
The growth is good, but the infrastructure hasn't grown in the same respect. When you have a metro of over 500,000, and the main life-line is I-540 with 2 lanes in each direction and interchanges (with no planning at all... Zero... 0) that are designed for very rural areas, you have a problem. The problem also exists on the city streets, and the roads that filter out of the towns. Narrow roads with no shoulders, with sharp turns... Then jump on 540, where cars hang in the left lane like its that cozy spot in their bed. It gets super irritating after a while.
The growth is good, but the infrastructure hasn't grown in the same respect. When you have a metro of over 500,000, and the main life-line is I-540 with 2 lanes in each direction and interchanges (with no planning at all... Zero... 0) that are designed for very rural areas, you have a problem. The problem also exists on the city streets, and the roads that filter out of the towns. Narrow roads with no shoulders, with sharp turns... Then jump on 540, where cars hang in the left lane like its that cozy spot in their bed. It gets super irritating after a while.
I agree, with the exception of the lack of highway planning, all that has and is happening in NWA is possitive.
I agree, with the exception of the lack of highway planning, all that has and is happening in NWA is possitive.
NIta
Interesting. I know I-540 is young (in Benton County), but when you build a highway of any kind/type, you build it out for the next 20-30 years and beyond. It's ridiculous to build a major highway like 540/71, and then have it completely inadequate within 10 years. That equals NO planning, no common sense.
And, they are finally beginning construction of the Bella Vista bypass... They're building a 3 mile stretch of a "super two" near Hiwasse! Super two = interstate, but one lane in each direction. The bypass will connect 540 at 71B in Bentonville to 71 in Pineville, MO. Missouri had all funding ready to build this, but AR dragged their feet. Mind-numbing how it took this long for AR to actually begin some sort of construction.
Arkansas needs to find a new transportation funding formula... And stop putting transportation issues in the back seat!
MJ, you don't quite appreciate the situation, and we've talked about this before. When I-540 was built, it was expected to be adequate for the projections of the NWA area for 20-25 years to come. They didn't expect the explosive growth (honestly, no one did), and if you've lived in any area that starts growing rapidly seemingly overnight, you know how impossible it is to predict how things will grow... it simply can't be done. I don't feel they designed the highway very well for interstate grade road, but I imagine they did the best they could with the resources they had. As far as the way the Bella Vista bypass played out, I am also very disappointed with how long it took for things to get going, and I agree that they need to fix their funding formula, but it's not that transportation is in the back seat or that AR was dragging their feet. Missouri had the luxury of existing roadway to improve, not replace. Arkansas has to build a whole new road, acquire new land, etc. The fact that they were able to get funding to buy the land for the road in the first place showed their commitment to the project, but the feds have not supported the project in any significant way yet and the state simply couldn't afford to do the project on their own yet. I'm glad they're moving forward with the 2-lane road, and I do think that it will lead to a 4-lane interstate grade road being built in that area very soon, especially if the new highway funding taxes pass at the next election.
The simple fact is that the I-49 project will cost AR a whole lot more than it cost Missouri (due to them having a more developed existing roadway) and they've been doing everything they really can to get it going while still trying to keep needed infrastructure improvements in the rest of the state afloat too. It's easy to find fault and criticize what you feel they did wrong, but you also have to be realistic and realize that not only does money not grow on trees, but that it isn't as if the I-49 corridor was the only project they had to be finding funding for. I am as impatient as the next guy, and would love to see all the needed road construction in AR be completed overnight, but I know that just isn't feasible, no matter how the funding formula was written.
MJ, you don't quite appreciate the situation, and we've talked about this before. When I-540 was built, it was expected to be adequate for the projections of the NWA area for 20-25 years to come. They didn't expect the explosive growth (honestly, no one did), and if you've lived in any area that starts growing rapidly seemingly overnight, you know how impossible it is to predict how things will grow... it simply can't be done. I don't feel they designed the highway very well for interstate grade road, but I imagine they did the best they could with the resources they had. As far as the way the Bella Vista bypass played out, I am also very disappointed with how long it took for things to get going, and I agree that they need to fix their funding formula, but it's not that transportation is in the back seat or that AR was dragging their feet. Missouri had the luxury of existing roadway to improve, not replace. Arkansas has to build a whole new road, acquire new land, etc. The fact that they were able to get funding to buy the land for the road in the first place showed their commitment to the project, but the feds have not supported the project in any significant way yet and the state simply couldn't afford to do the project on their own yet. I'm glad they're moving forward with the 2-lane road, and I do think that it will lead to a 4-lane interstate grade road being built in that area very soon, especially if the new highway funding taxes pass at the next election.
The simple fact is that the I-49 project will cost AR a whole lot more than it cost Missouri (due to them having a more developed existing roadway) and they've been doing everything they really can to get it going while still trying to keep needed infrastructure improvements in the rest of the state afloat too. It's easy to find fault and criticize what you feel they did wrong, but you also have to be realistic and realize that not only does money not grow on trees, but that it isn't as if the I-49 corridor was the only project they had to be finding funding for. I am as impatient as the next guy, and would love to see all the needed road construction in AR be completed overnight, but I know that just isn't feasible, no matter how the funding formula was written.
I still don't buy it. "Growth overnight"? Is that possible? All growth is planned.
And MO doesn't have the luxury of a existing roadway, when it comes to the Bella Vista bypass. There is no roadway there... it's all new.. in MO and AR.
And I know you used the "less population" than MO arguments... I moved from a state that had a population that was less than AR. And highways/roads/transportation was taken more seriously. Here, I don't see it at all.
I still don't buy it. "Growth overnight"? Is that possible? All growth is planned.
And MO doesn't have the luxury of a existing roadway, when it comes to the Bella Vista bypass. There is no roadway there... it's all new.. in MO and AR.
And I know you used the "less population" than MO arguments... I moved from a state that had a population that was less than MO. And highways/roads/transportation was taken more seriously. Here, I don't see it at all.
No, it really isn't. Growth, from an infrastructure perspective, is almost always reactive. You don't know exactly how an area's growth will develop, what communities will draw the most people, or how developers will want to place density. You can encourage certain types of growth, and hire studies to predict growth (which take years and can't keep up with rapid growth) but a city only has so much power, and explosive growth is impossible to predict. I've seen it in the north Dallas suburbs, and NWA experienced that to a smaller degree.
And no, it's not all new. Missouri built a new small section in SE MO, but it was shorter than the Arkansas side, and an easier sell for funding since their US 71 was already interstate grade (or near interstate grade) throughout the entire state. Missouri wouldn't have to build as much new road for the bypass if they had built the new southern section of 71 to interstate grades and avoided 4-way stops and stoplights, but they chose not to do that too- so it's not as if either state did a great job planning for this upfront. I do appreciate that Missouri managed to set money aside for the Bella Vista bypass (future I-49) though, that is admirable. It would have been nice if the state of Arkansas has put some of their former surplus fund towards the bypass project, but they put that into economic development and services, and I can't complain too much about that. I do wish they'd just built the 540/71 project to interstate grade all the way to the MO border to begin with, but Bella Vista was a tiny spot in the road then and I guess they didn't expect the retirees and families to flock there.
The fact that you don't see things being taken seriously is because you're apparently not connected to a network of people that know how things are decided or why they're done the way they are, OR because you've just recently come to the area and don't appreciate how fast things grew and how far infrastructure has actually come. I'm not for a second arguing that Arkansas doesn't need to change its funding formula and find a way to get the 540 improvements and Bella Vista bypass done, but they put forward impressive proposals for stimulus funds and federal funding requests for years to get that project running and got little to no support while trying to figure out how to complete projects that have been needing drastic improvements for even longer than NWA (like certain projects in Little Rock and some south Arkansas arterial road improvements). It's a challenging situation with no easy answer. I don't fault you for wanting the area you live in to get improvements, but you simply don't have an appreciation for the difficulty in accomplishing what you want to happen and it's a bit insulting to the people that work hard to improve our road network. Road infrastructure and economic development are very interconnected and are, along with improving education, the state's highest priority. Whether you see that or not doesn't change the fact that it is, but I hope you'll be willing to step back a bit and look at things in a bit more realistic view when progress is made in NWA.
On a side note- you're up as late as I am! Insomnia's a nasty thing, huh?
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Insomnia's a nasty thing, huh?
