ROGERS, Ark. — After nearly two years of construction near the Pinnacle Hills Promenade in Rogers, the Oak Street Overpass opened Wednesday morning.
73,000 people call Rogers home. With the population growing every day, the city needed a solution to free up I-49.
The project is a result of a four-year study to alleviate traffic concerns in the city as the city approaches 100,000 residents.
"For years and years that was, we've got traffic pressure, so let's widen the road and put more lanes in," Rogers Mayor Greg Hines said.
Instead, the 300-foot overpass and roundabout, as well as other future projects on Oak Street, should promote better traffic flow.
Hines said investing in roads on the local level betters the chances of receiving federal funding for highways.
"If you're in DC and you're lobbying for some federal transportation dollars and you can't show that you're taking steps and strategies that try to keep localized traffic off of the interstates, I don't think you have a great argument," Hines added.
That investment is worth $20 million. The overpass and roundabout cost $11 million and the remaining will go toward extending West Oak Street to downtown Bentonville.
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