After a year of study, the Senior Vice President of Halff regional consulting firm, James Arbuckle, presented the findings of the Fort Smith Downtown Traffic and Truck Study to the Board of Directors during Tuesday's study session.

Arbuckle started his presentation by reviewing the project's goals and performance measures. Along with safety and compliance to federal regulations, the project sought to promote the economy and needs of downtown Fort Smith. The fourth out of the five goals was to preserve the character of downtown, such as restaurants and other buildings.

After holding a public meeting, interviewing stakeholders, putting out surveys and holding working group meetings, the study provided various concerns present among the citizens of Fort Smith. The public also had concerns about safety which focused mostly on cars running red lights on top of the lack of safe pedestrian crosswalks. Truck drivers expressed the importance of having a designated truck route while sharing concerns that non-local truck drivers don't always follow that route.

While assessing downtown, the study found four "deficient intersections" where traffic is so heavy that it takes several rounds of the traffic light for people to get through the intersection. Three are along Garrison while the last is on 11th Street.

Out of the five possible alternatives, Halff found two to be viable options.

One alternative was to make the truck route go down 5th Street until the 100 Block where it would reroute to 4th Street with a new roadway between A and B Streets. The route would continue on 4th until H Street where the trucks would transition to Riverfront Drive. This would require expanded intersections at 5th and H as well as H and Riverfront in order to accommodate the trucks taking the sharp turns.

The option that Halff recommended the city move forward with was to extend the truck route on 4th Street all the way to Kelley Highway. This is the same idea as the previous plan, but instead of the trucks turning at H Street, they would follow it to P Street where they would subsequently merge onto the future Kelley Highway. Not only would this consolidate the truck route to one long corridor, it would alleviate traffic along the riverfront and enable the city to grow the park.

Arbuckle also presented intersection options for bookending downtown with roundabouts, but each presented their own problems. In order to put a roundabout at 3rd Street and Garrison Avenue, it would mean cutting into the monument and historical site. At the other end of town, the intersection where 10th Street, 11th Street, Garrison Avenue and Towson Avenue come together does not have a feasible change without removing the hotel at that corner.

In the 12-18 month plan, the city would need to improve intersections at 5th Street and 11th Street in order to improve the ability to make a left turn safely and so that pedestrians could better cross the road. This would also include analyzing and studying what it would take to make all of downtown more friendly to pedestrians. Another study would be necessary to examine what extending the 5th Street corridor to Kelley highway would look like. This portion of the project would cost approximately $275,000.

In the 24-36 month plan, the city would need to complete the improvements of the intersection at 5th Street and Garrison Avenue so that it could fully accommodate trucks turning off of Garrison onto 5th. They would also have to complete an environmental study to discover the impact of expanding the truck route. The city would also need to take this time to gain the ordinances required for the project and develop an access plan for the route. This portion of the project will cost approximately $600,000.

Within three to five years, the project is estimated to be completed and there should be a 1.5 mile route dedicated to truck traffic. At that point in time, the city will revisit the possibility of a western bypass going into Oklahoma in order for trucks to completely miss the downtown area of Fort Smith. The final construction of the route is expected to be approximately $5.8 million.