February 17, 2010

Bella Vista Bypass Gets $10 Million from Feds

From today’s NWA Online:

The U.S. Department of Transportation today awarded a $10 million grant to help build the Bella Vista bypass.

Half of the money will apparently go to Arkansas and the other half will go to Missouri, said Randy Ort, a spokesman for the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department. Missouri had requested no grant for its 4.8-mile section of the bypass.

“It leads you to believe it’s $5 million each,” said Ort. “We have more questions than we have answers right now.”

The Arkansas highway department had requested $145.4 million for the state’s 14.1-mile section of the 18.9-mile bypass of U.S. 71.

Ort said he was glad the Bella Vista bypass received a grant, “Obviously, we are very disappointed in the amount, though.”

Out of 1,381 applications, the Department of Transportation awarded grants to 51 projects. There was $1.5 billion available through the TIGER discretionary grants, which stands for Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery. Applicants requested a total of $56.9 billion. The Bella Vista bypass was the only application endorsed by the Arkansas Highway Department.

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