December 2018

Year 2018 in Northwest Arkansas was fantastic by almost any measure.

New highways, expanded healthcare, business investments, new areas of emphasis, and national recognition as one of the nation’s best places to live were among the highlights.

The Northwest Arkansas Council staff each year pulls together a year-end summary focused on the year’s best happenings, and there’s significant room for debate. We limited the list to the Top 10, but could have easily stepped it up to a Top 15 or even Top 20. There were that many important or region-changing successes in 2018.

A federal grant announced today by five members of Congress will pay for the unfunded portion of the Missouri-Arkansas Connector, a project that’s been worked on by Missouri and Arkansas for more than 20 years.

The $25 million U.S. Department of Transportation’s Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant, which was requested by the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission, will go to the Missouri Department of Transportation which has promised to complete work on a five-mile portion of a 19-mile section of Interstate 49 that swings west of Bella Vista.