Jonesboro, AR – Contributed – The City of Jonesboro will break ground at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7, on the Caraway Road Expansion Project, marking the beginning of a long-awaited infrastructure improvement along one of the city’s heavily traveled corridors.

The approximately $5.5 million project will expand Caraway Road to 5 lanes from I-555 to Latourette Drive and then transition to three lanes to Glenn Place. The project will also include approximately 1.5 miles of new side path to improve pedestrian safety and mobility.

With more than 15,000 vehicles traveling the corridor each day, and no pedestrian accommodations, the current road conditions have long been a source of public concern. Prior to the start of sitework, dirt pathways lined each side of the street from heavy pedestrian use despite the lack of any sidewalks. The added vehicle capacity is also designed to reduce southbound congestion on Caraway Road, which at peak traffic often causes significant delays.

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The city hopes the expansion, and added capacity, will make the area more attractive for future development and provide safer access to the nearby Nettleton Fox Meadow School campuses. The project will also enclose existing drainage infrastructure along the roadway.

The improvements on south Caraway are part of the City’s broader investment in infrastructure, public safety and quality of life that includes unprecedented allocations for street overlays, sidewalks and ongoing highway partnership projects with ArDOT.

“These investments have been talked about for a long time, and I’m proud to see us finally reaching this point,” said Mayor Harold Copenhaver. “It really is amazing to see all the public and private projects occurring in our city right now. I know construction is a temporary inconvenience, but growth is a good problem to have, especially when you consider the alternative is decline.”

The project is being funded through the city’s $17.5 million revenue bond package, part of the Destination 100K initiative. The bond package was approved by the Jonesboro City Council, whose support helped made this investment possible without increasing taxes. The revenue bond is supported by non-tax revenue franchise fees already paid to the city, primarily by utility companies that utilize city rights-of-way. Jonesboro had not used a revenue bond for financing infrastructure projects in more than two decades.

Some projects included in the initiative had been discussed for more than a decade before funding became available.

“When I first started with the city in 2007, the south Caraway Road project was listed as a priority and plans were developed, but adequate funding was never appropriated. This has been needed and talked about for a long time and I’m happy to see it finally get started,” said city engineer Craig Light.

“Jonesboro has limited revenue streams when compared to our peer cities, but there were several critical projects that we had to find a way to move forward with. Bonding gave us that ability and these lifesaving projects like the new E-911 center, Johnson Avenue improvements and this road expansion project are now all under active construction,” Copenhaver said. “These investments are about more than roads and concrete. They are about public safety, quality of life and are critical for keeping pace with the growth we are experiencing in Jonesboro.”

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