By Camryn Stroupe, Opinions Editor
Arkansas Highway 51 and US-67, known as Pine Street and 10th Street in Arkadelphia, are undergoing major changes in the coming years. The City of Arkadelphia, in partnership with Clark County, the Arkadelphia Regional Economic Development Alliance, Economic Development Corporation of Clark County and the Arkansas Department of Transportation, has broken ground on the Arkadelphia Bypass Project and Pine Street Widening Project, which will include Pine Street improvements and a bypass connecting AR-67 to I-30 south of the city. These projects have included the recent closure of a portion of Walnut Street beside Second Baptist Church and the drainage and utility work along Pine Street/AR-51.
The goal of the bypass is to help alleviate downtown traffic from heavier vehicles, specifically logging trucks. Arkadelphia Mayor Scott Byrd spoke about the importance of this issue. “Timber is a big industry in this area,” Byrd said. “When log trucks come from either direction to go south on Highway 67, they have to come from Pine Street and turn by the Tiger Mart, come to 10th Street and Caddo and turn left and turn again at 6th Street by Laster’s Furniture. There’s tons of issues with that with cars having to back up and make room. One of the biggest things we’re trying to solve is to get the log truck traffic out of downtown, out of our main thoroughfare.”
Traffic that is merely passing through the city, such as the heavier trucks, will be able to continue south on an extended 10th Street/US-67 without turning onto Caddo St and heading into downtown. City Manager Gary Brinkley has worked extensively on planning the project. “The 10th Street extension will start about where the Captain Henderson House is and be expanded to three lanes,” Brinkley said. “It will go from there all the way to the new bypass south of town.”
The route will cut through several properties, including the previous location of KFC, and reconnect with the current US-67 with the bypass around Walnut Street.
The project is projected to cost about 80 million dollars, but Arkadelphia has received a significant amount of funding from ARDOT, Clark County and the Economic Development Corporation of Clark County (EDCCC). Land has also been donated from Henderson State University and Ouachita Baptist University to help with the project along 10th Street and Pine Street.
The Pine Street Widening Project will improve drainage and utilities along the roadway. Along with this, it will widen the road from two lanes to add a dedicated left-turn lane and improve curb, sidewalks and gutters from its 10th Street intersection to the intersection at 26th Street where the road has already been widened to 5 lanes (one of these being a dedicated left-turn lane). Brinkley explained how all of this work is connected to the project. “It’s a holistic system because Pine will be widened and cleaned up with three fresh lanes, and then you’ll have sidewalks all the way down,” Brinkley said. “It’s going to be a really difficult and ugly project for the next two and a half years.”
The Pine Street project has a projected cost of 7.6 million dollars, but the quality of the street is expected to greatly improve between Ouachita and 26th Street. “Over the next few years, we should expect a lot of orange barrels,” Brinkley said. “Once it’s done, it’ll have a wider space, be better for pedestrians and we’ll have that big curve opened up.”
These projects will be a waiting game, but they will be worth it for those of us who will be driving in Arkadelphia for the next few years. It’ll be what it should’ve been from the start,” Brinkley said. “There will be inconveniences, but two and a half years from now, we will go, ‘gosh, we should’ve done this 25 years ago.’” The main thing that the city government is asking from the people is patience. “It’s probably going to get worse before it gets better,” Byrd said. “These are growing pains, but it’s going to be so much better.”
Byrd and Brinkley both spoke of the importance of those who have helped the projects get to this point. “Troy Tucker, Shelley Short at the EDC Alliance, Dr. Ben Sells, Dr. Wesley Kluck, Dr. Lewis Shepherd and Bill Wright have all helped tremendously with this,” Byrd said. “Robert Moore on the State Highway Commission, who graduated from Ouachita, was also instrumental in helping us get this.”
The most gratitude, however, was expressed for the people of Arkadelphia, who voted to continue a tax that has allowed for infrastructure improvements such as this. “Most of all, the citizens that voted for the tax for us to continue on these projects are to thank,” Byrd said. “If they hadn’t, we wouldn’t be able to be doing what they are right now. They’re the biggest players.”
