GRIDLOCK GURU : Guru reader: Gregg’s lines tough to see
Posted on Friday, November 21, 2008
Road builders don’t “paint” the yellow and white lines that go down on a new street.
It’s fancy thermoplastic pavement markings that go down, and it’s what makes the new lines on Gregg Avenue in Fayetteville.
Mary Hughes, who lives in Fayetteville, thinks the Gregg Avenue lines are difficult to see, especially at night and when it’s raining, even though the road opened just six months ago.
The Guru sets out this week to explain why pavement markings cost so much.
Afterward, a Springdale woman learns that an intersection is likely to get a traffic signal, but it’s two years away.
Question: Hughes thinks the center lines and pavement markings on Gregg between Futrall Drive and Township Street are difficult to see.
“How long have we had the new lanes on Gregg ?” Hughes writes. “I would like for you to drive that street, at night, and in the rain. I did that in daylight and could not see the lines.”
Answer: The Guru’s crazy dance wouldn’t bring rain, but he did drive Gregg Avenue in the daytime and at night. The Guru’s eyes are only 25 percent better than Stevie Wonder’s, and he could see the lines fine.
The thermoplastic pavement markings and plowable pavement markers on the new section of Gregg cost $ 24, 050, said Joe Shipman, the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department’s district engineer. The Guru shall break that price down a bit.
The 4-inch-wide yellow lines in the middle of a road and the 4-inch-wide white ones that make the white dashes cost 35 cents a foot.
The 12 arrows telling motorists where to turn cost $ 128. 10 each. The word “only” right below the giant left turn arrows costs $ ™. 75 apiece.
Then you’ve got the socalled plowable pavement markers that contain glass beads and make it easier to see lines at night. They are epoxied into the pavement. That’s $ 8, 397 of the $ 24, 050. It was a part of the $ 6. 5 million project.
Q: “Do you know why they are putting up stoplights everywhere in Springdale but are not installing one at Johnson Road and Chapman Avenue ?” Becky Baugh writes.
A: Frank McIllwain, a senior project manager with Garver Engineers, said a signal will be installed at Johnson and Chapman as part of improvements to Johnson Road in Springdale and Main Drive in Johnson.
In January, Springdale hired Garver to design a wider Johnson Road, agreeing to pay $ 4. 6 million to the Fayetteville firm. Johnson Road will be four lanes with center turn lanes at major intersections like Chapman Avenue and John Tyson Parkway.
The city in 2005 received a $ 16 million federal earmark to improve Johnson Road between U. S. 412 (Sunset Avenue ) and Interstate 540 ’s Johnson exit. Springdale will provide another $ 3 million.
City Engineer Ben Peters said public meetings likely will be held early next year to show the preferred route through Johnson. There are two possibilities, and there’s a map online at www. nwanews. com / gridlockguru to show you.
Construction on the route probably starts in 2010, McIllwain said. Robert J. Smith, aka The Guru, writes on traffic issues in Northwest Arkansas each Friday. He can be reached at gridlockguru@ arkansasonline. com.
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