Rogers Traffic Volume Exploding

By John L. Moore
THE MORNING NEWS • JMOORE@NWAONLINE.NET

FAST FACT  --  ROAD VOLUME
Two-way traffic volumes in a 24-hour weekday period could top 194,000 by 2021 along the Interstate 540 corridor in south Rogers.

PLANNERS SEEK INTERCHANGE AT PERRY ROAD, INTERSTATE 540
ROGERS — If you think traffic's bad in Rogers now, wait till the volume of cars in a 24-hour period swells to 194,000 on roads in south Rogers.  That's what Peters and Associates projected in a traffic study for a request to put in an interchange at Perry Road and Interstate 540.
Buried in the back of the lengthy report is a sheet detailing the number of cars expected, based on the full development of the residential and commercial area that centers on I-540 from Pleasant Grove Road to Walnut Street. The number seems staggering: 194,000 cars in a 24-hour period by the year 2021. The number, however, shouldn't shock too many people, considering the daily traffic volumes on 1-540 has grown by 7,000 cars in just two years, said Jeff Hawkins, the director of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission. Interstate 540 in southwest Rogers had 48,000 cars per day in 2001; the number rose to 55,000 cars per day in 2003, a 14.5 percent increase. Hawkins said he received the new traffic counts, which represent 2003 numbers, on Wednesday from the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department. If that kind of growth is expanded into the network of roads feeding 1-540 in southwest Rogers and projected into the future, 194,000 cars sounds pretty reasonable, he said. In 1991,1-540 had 16,500 cars per day, Hawkins said. 1-540 was designed as a rural four-lane freeway. No one expected the kind of growth Northwest Arkansas has experienced or 1-540 would have likely been designed differently, Hawkins said. "That 55,000 represents a critical threshold for 1-540," Hawkins said. "Capacity issues at ramps and exits start to develop, and the state recognizes that there are capacity issues now;" he said. The state highway department has funded a traffic study for I-540 that is under way, he said “I think I surprised some people at the state (highway department) when I told them that taking 1-540 to six lanes would probably be a no-brainer when the numbers from the new study are released," he said but Hawkins said the surrounding street infrastructure in southwest Rogers that feeds I-540 will also have to have significant adjustment to keep up with that amount of traffic. Derrel Smith, senior planner for the city, said the projections of traffic volume represent a challenge for the city — one that has made city officials strive every day to look for new ways to fund the infrastructure needed.
"That number, of course, represents the 1-540 corridor once it is completely developed," Smith said. "That is a lot of growth in a short period of time. If it happens in 20 years, I don't see how 1-540 can handle the traffic with only two lanes each direction.”