Signs point to controversy along Interstate 540.

Landowners Fuming Over Ban on Billboards

It has been almost a year since Interstate 540 was opened for traffic from Alma to Fayetteville. Still, no gas stations, truck stops or billboards mar the scenery along the 42-mile stretch of four-lane freeway through the Boston Mountains.

At more than $10 million per mile, the $459 million I-540 is the most expensive highway project in Arkansas' history, taking some 12 years to construct and creating the only highway tunnels in the state.

Highway interchanges along the I-540 seem ripe for development, but much of the territory has no city water or sewer services. That means, even if land is available, it's expensive to build along the new interstate.

The lack of development means a lack of signs. When 1-540 was completed this past January, the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department immediately established a moratorium to forbid off-premise signs along the new interstate until it could be determined if I-540 would be designated a scenic byway.

The League of Women Voters of Washington County agreed in late September to sponsor the proposal to make a 38-mile segment of I-540 (from Arkansas Highway 282 near Alma to south Fayetteville) an Arkansas scenic byway.

The designation would ban off-premise signs (other than state-approved logo signs) permanently from the highway. It's an idea that has Don Couch fuming.

Bridging the Gap

Two years ago, Couch opened the Silverbridge Truck and Auto Plaza on U.S. Highway 71, about two miles east of where the new interstate was to be built.

Couch says he opted for the current location (just inside the Mountainburg city limits) because it would have cost him $750,000 to run a sewer line from town to the Mountainburg exit on I-540 to open the business there. And after all that expense, he would have to dig a well for water.

Couch says I-540 was built for two reasons: economic development and safety. For almost a century, Highway 71 was the only major road dissecting the mountain range along Arkansas' western edge. Many University of Arkansas alumni can remember traveling to Fayetteville for the first time on a gravel road. Highway 71, a primarily two-lane road that runs parallel to 1-540, wasn't completely paved until the 1940s. Passing lanes were added in the 1960s.

Forty-two miles of Highway 71 (between Alma and Fayetteville) was designated a scenic byway in 1998 after a series of public meetings (that actually began in 1992) to take comments about the proposal. I-540 was expected to take about 85 percent of the traffic (some 12,000 cars a day on average) off 71, and business owners along 71 wanted the scenic byway designation to lure tourists down the winding road by their shops, motels and other businesses.

Highway 71 was considered one of the most dangerous highways in Arkansas, but I-540 took the tractor-trailer trucks off 71 and made the road safer for meandering motorists.

For years, Arkansas has had two scenic byways: Arkansas Highway 7 running the length of the state (194 miles) from Arkadelphia to Harrison, and Arkansas Highway 309, a 44-mile stretch of highway from Webb City south of Ozark over Mount Magazine to Havana in Yell County.

In 1997, the highway commission approved a proposal for a Crowley's Ridge Scenic Byway in eastern Arkansas. That 198-mile route follows several different highways along the top and sides of Crowley's Ridge through the cities of Piggott, Paragould, Jonesboro, Forrest City, Marianna and Helena.

What's Your Sign?

Couch says the state highway department has gone back on its word by considering the same designation for 1-540. Couch says the AHTD said that, if area residents would allow 71 to be designated a scenic byway, I-540 would be used as a commercial thoroughfare through the Ozarks' western range.

"They've already designated Highway 71 a scenic byway," Couch says. "Why would you want two scenic byways? You're defeating the purpose of building the new highway in the first place."

In a Sept. 23 letter to Jonathan Barnett of Springdale, a state highway commissioner, Couch wrote that the scenic byway designation would make I-540 more dangerous because travelers would "slow down to pull on and off the roadway to look."

Without billboards, Couch says, many of the businesses located near the interstate, but not adjacent to it, may have to close because motorists won't know the businesses are there.

The 38-mile section of I-540 slated for the scenic designation has six exits on each side along the route - at Deans Market, Mountainburg, Chester, Winslow, West Fork and Greenland.

Keith Stephens, a spokesman for the highway department, says many business owners in the vicinity of 1540 are forgetting that on-premises signs are permitted along the freeway, and the Silverbridge store may be close enough that Couch could construct a tall sign on his property that would be visible from the interstate.

"The only restriction is you can't have off premise signs," Stephens says. "If you've got a business there at that intersection, put a sign up. In theory, if you have a business five miles away and can build a sign big enough to see it, then build it."

Stephens says Couch, and any other business people along 1-540, can also purchase the state-approved logo signs.

The logo signs cost $500 per year plus a $50 one-time installation fee. Signs for food, camping and lodging are 15 SF. Signs for gas stations are 12 SF. Four signs are allowed per business - two (heading each direction on the interstate). One of the signs is posted two miles from the exit ramp, and the other is located at the exit. Up to nine signs can be posted on a single placard, so the signs are issued on a first-come basis. Stephens says some logo signs are already posted on 1-540.

Couch tried to circumvent the off-premise sign rules last spring when he parked a white trailer from a tractor-trailer rig in a field next to the Mountainburg exit on 1-540. A message on the trailer - visible to travelers on the interstate - said "Silverbridge Truck and Auto Plaza, Next Exit /429, Diesel, Gas, Food, Open 24 Hours."

But the highway department said the sign was illegal, and Couch was forced to remove it.

First Development

Although no businesses have sprouted along 1-540, work is under way on a Phillips 66 truck stop on the northwest corner of the Greenland exit.

Todd Bohannan says the land has been in his family for five generations. When Shell and other companies called trying to buy it, he said, "No thanks."

Instead, Bohannan decided to open a truck stop at the site himself and partnered with Northwest Oil Co. of Fayetteville to do it. He goes before the Greenland Planning Commission on Oct. 4. If all goes well, construction could begin by November and be completed by February or March. The 6,500-SF building will also house an A&W Root Beer restaurant.

Bohannan says his next door neighbor has been contacted by several restaurant and motel chains but so far has refused to sell his land.

Even though it won't affect his business, Bohannan, a public works crew leader with the city of Fayetteville, says he doesn't agree with the off-premise sign moratorium.

"I don't think it's quite fair for people who own land - for people who aren't lucky enough to be located next to an off ramp," he says. "We've got one scenic highway. I didn't think an interstate-grade highway could be a scenic highway."

Background

The construction of I-540 from Alma to Fayetteville was completed in early January, and the highway was opened to traffic on Jan. 8.

Dignitaries on hand for the dedication included U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater and Bobby Hopper of Springdale. The twin, 1,600-foot-long tunnels along the highway near Winslow were named the Bobby Hopper Tunnel in honor of Hopper, who served on the state highway commission for 16 years, longer than any other board member in history.

The entire project consisted of 42 miles of roadway. The highway that is designated Interstate 540 is a total of 50 miles long. Construction of eight miles of 540 was completed years earlier and is often referred to as the Fayetteville bypass.

At the northern edge of Fayetteville, I-540 connects with 71, which continues north to the Missouri state line. The southernmost 10-mile segment of the roadway (from Alma to Mountainburg) was completed four years ago.

Interstate 540 has taken the majority of traffic off 71. According to the highway department, about 11,700 vehicles per day traveled Interstate 540 in the first months after it opened, leaving only about 3,100 vehicles per day snaking through the Ozark hills on 71.

A major construction project with in the highway project is the creation of the tunnels near Winslow, the only highway tunnels in Arkansas.

The tunnels cost $37.1 million. Each tunnel is 44 feet wide and about 27 feet high.

Construction on 540 began in January 1987 at the Interstate 40 interchange in Alma.

Speaking with reporters after the dedication, Slater said the highway department would soon request federal funds to extend 540 south from Fort Smith to Texarkana (along the route of U.S. 71). After dead-ending at Interstate 40 in Alma, I-540 continues (off I-40) a few miles to the west near Van Buren and stretches another 15 miles or so before becoming U.S. 71 again.