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Proposed crosswalk on East Johnson in Jonesboro nixed

A proposed crosswalk on East Johnson Avenue in Jonesboro has been nixed due to safety concerns. 

Jonesboro Mayor Harold Perrin told members of the Jonesboro Metropolitan Organization’s Policy Committee that he received the news from the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department. 

The City of Jonesboro, Arkansas State University, and the Highway Department were going to partner in a project that would place a crosswalk on Johnson Avenue between Caraway Road and the Marion Berry Parkway.  This would help students and residents of north Jonesboro to be able to cross the busy four-lane road. 

Mayor Perrin says the plan was shot down by the Highway Department because of safety concerns on how to slow down the traffic on Johnson.  A $40,000 feasibility study was conducted and the highway department determined a crosswalk was not the best plan.  All partners are expected to come back together to try to develop a new plan that would be the safest for crossing Johnson Avenue. 

The Jonesboro Metropolitan Organization’s Policy Committee has approved a new transportation improvement plan that would focus on numerous projects through 2020.  Short term projects would be constructed gradually over four years. 

The policy committee reviewed numerous public comments that will be published along with the transportation plan.  A lack of foresight in the overall transportation planning process and the focus on short term transportation projects without considering long term needs were the main concerns that came out of two public forums held a few weeks ago. 

The policy committee will slowly analyze those comments over the next several weeks and determine how to the get the public more involved in future processes, as well as how to ensure there is greater accountability and tracking in relation to projects.  The total amount of the transportation projects as part of the four year plan would be just over $116 million. 

The State Highway and Transportation Department and federal money increased the total amount allocated for the Highway 18 overpass at Highland Drive and Matthews to $12 million dollars.  Groundbreaking for the project could take place later this year.

Johnathan Reaves is the News Director for KASU Public Radio. As part of an Air Force Family, he moved to Arkansas from Minot, North Dakota in 1986. He was first bitten by the radio bug after he graduated from Gosnell High School in 1992. While working on his undergraduate degree, he worked at KOSE, a small 1,000 watt AM commercial station in Osceola, Arkansas. Upon graduation from Arkansas State University in 1996 with a degree in Radio-Television Broadcast News, he decided that he wanted to stay in radio news. He moved to Stuttgart, Arkansas and worked for East Arkansas Broadcasters as news director and was there for 16 years.