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Springdale May Widen And Extend 56th Street To Johnson

SPRINGDALE (KFSM) —  Springdale, Johnson and the highway department are considering widening and extending 56th Street between the two cities. Currently, ...

SPRINGDALE (KFSM) --  Springdale, Johnson and the highway department are considering widening and extending 56th Street between the two cities.

Currently, 56th Street in Springdale has two lanes in each direction to the traffic circle at Don Tyson parkway. However, this proposed plan could change that.

Randy Harner has lived along 56th Street in Springdale for almost two decades and he said he was against the project because the road would be widened onto his property.

“It's obviously going to affect me and property value if they do tend to expand it,” said Harner. "The problem I have with this is they told me so many times that they would not be doing any expansion for at least 10 years."

Harner said he's also confused by the project, because the plan is to widen part of existing 56th Street, as well as to extend 56th Street southeast of the current road.

He said he wants to know why they will bother widening the street in front of his house at all, which he worries will invite more traffic.

“People come around this curb below me at such speeds, many times I've come around and almost gotten hit looking both ways,” said Harner.

Springdale public relations director Melissa Reeves said they're still in the early planning stages, but this has been part of the cities' long range transportation plan.

“Springdale is growing quite a bit and it's growing a lot out west,” said Reeves. "What this is going to do is take some pressure off the other north/south corridors in the city."

Reeves said 56th Street is an area where a lot of new businesses will be going up in the near future.

“It's just one of those happy coincidences that the hospital is going there at the same time that we're already looking to extend that street,” said Reeves.

The city will be holding an open house about the project next week on Tuesday from 4-7 p.m. at the Sam’s Club community room at Arvest Ballpark.

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