Wichita, Sedgwick County ready to start the engine on roads projects

Major road work is planned at spots across Wichita and Sedgwick County this year, including on both ends of Kellogg.

Construction is expected to begin later this year on two major Kellogg projects, although the disruption to traffic should initially be minimal, officials say.

On Wichita’s east side, the widening of Kellogg to six lanes will be continued eastward for about a mile – from Cypress, near the current entrance ramp to the Kansas Turnpike, to a point about halfway between Webb and Greenwich roads.

The project will also take Kellogg under Webb. Expected to cost about $100 million, this work is to be bid out in June, with construction to start in August or September.

The first part of the work, moving utilities and building frontage roads, will take more than a year, said Wichita city engineer Gary Janzen. Two lanes of traffic will be kept open in each direction throughout the project, with left turns at Webb prohibited during most of it, he said. It is planned to be finished in 2019.

A second phase of the project will widen Kellogg to K-96 and build new ramps to the turnpike there.

On the west side, contracts for $116 million in improvements to the I-235/Kellogg interchange are expected to be awarded later this year, with construction possibly starting before the year’s end. Traffic probably won’t be affected by the work until next year, said Tom Hein, a Kansas Department of Transportation spokesman.

Improvements include building a new two-lane ramp from southbound I-235 to eastbound Kellogg and a new single-lane ramp from northbound I-235 to westbound Kellogg. The ramp from eastbound Kellogg to northbound I-235 will also be rebuilt.

Infrastructure upgrades

Elsewhere, the city of Wichita will start major infrastructure upgrades around the south and east ends of the Wichita State University campus this year to accommodate the school’s planned expansion.

About $13 million has been budgeted for the work near WSU, which will involve widening 17th and Oliver, improving that intersection and the one at 21st and Oliver and laying new water and sewer lines.

“We want to replace the old (water and sewer) mains while we have the streets under construction,” said Ben Nelson, strategic services manager for the city. “They’re going to be serving a higher level of development than what’s up there now.”

Wichita State plans to turn Braeburn Golf Course into an Innovation Campus with more than a dozen new buildings during the next 20 years. The city hopes to complete the street, sewer and water work in the area by 2017.

After that project, the biggest single item on the city’s public works budget is $9.8 million to reconstruct and widen Meridian to five lanes from Pawnee to McCormick.

“Some parts of that street are not in the best shape,” Nelson said. “That’s mostly because it’s had really poor drainage for years.”

The city last year built a stormwater drainage system that diverts water from the street. The street work began last summer and should be done by next summer.

Another $6.5 million is earmarked to expand North Amidon to five lanes and improve intersections between 21st and 29th streets.

“It’s been on the books for a while as something we wanted to expand the capacity of,” Nelson said. Construction is underway and should be finished by late this year.

County projects

Sedgwick County has a couple of multimillion-dollar road projects planned for this year. One will replace pavement, add shoulders and improve the ditch along 135th Street West from 71st Street South to 95th Street South, at an estimated cost of $3.1 million. Work should start this month and be finished by October.

“This is one of two good roads into Clearwater,” said Jim Weber, deputy director of the county’s public works department. “This is really just bringing it up to a higher standard, to improve the ride and safety.”

The other project, budgeted at $2.5 million, will replace temporary pavement and add shoulders along two miles of Maple between 167th Street West and 199th Street West. The road provides access to the Eisenhower school complex.

“The traffic is up, and it needs to be permanently replaced,” Weber said. The work is expected to start this month and be completed by August.

The county will also spend $900,000 on a multi-use path for bicycles, runners and walkers. The path, called the Aviation Pathway, will run from Derby along Oliver to its intersection with 47th Street South. Plans call for the pathway to be extended west along 47th Street to the Oaklawn area and then north to connect with an existing path at MacArthur.

Other city projects

▪ Adding a middle turn lane to Tyler between 29th and 37th streets, plus drainage and sidewalk improvements; $3.5 million. Construction will begin this spring and be completed in the fall.

▪ Constructing dual left-turn lanes for cars turning south at 37th and Hillside; $1 million. The city recently improved 37th between Oliver and Hillside because of the Koch Industries campus expansion. “This will make it easier to get back to K-96,” Nelson said. The work is expected to start this spring and be finished by fall.

▪ Adding a westbound turn lane and traffic signal at 13th and Edgemoor; $1 million. Nelson said traffic flow and counts at the intersection warrant the construction, which the city hopes to begin this spring and complete by the fall.

Other county projects

▪ Replacing a bridge on 93rd Street North between Meridian and Seneca; $400,000. Located about a half-mile from Valley Center High School, the bridge will be widened to four lanes, with space for a bike path, to get it ready for a road paving project slated for next year and expected widening later. The work should be done between this month and August.

▪ Replacing a bridge on 87th Street South between 295th Street West and 311th Street West; $500,000. Work should begin next month and be finished by August.

▪ Replacing an old timber bridge on 183rd Street West between Central and 13th; $600,000. Work is expected to start in May and be completed by December.

▪ Replacing a bridge on 45th Street North between Broadway and Hydraulic; $600,000. The bridge gets quite a bit of truck traffic because of United Warehouse and an industrial complex in the area, Weber said. The work is expected to start in July and be finished by March 2016.

Sedgwick County has $10 million and Wichita $8 million set aside for routine road maintenance.

Weber said the county maintenance work will cover about 120 miles of streets and roads, or about a fifth of the county’s total.

“We get the most bang for our buck out of that (work), but it takes the biggest part of our budget,” Weber said. “Like with a car, it’s a lot cheaper to do maintenance than to let it blow up and replace the whole thing.”

The city’s maintenance work will include a few pilot projects using techniques and materials it hasn’t tried before.

“We’re going to try a few innovative methods,” Nelson said. “We want to find a way that’s cheaper.”

This story was originally published February 27, 2015 at 9:16 AM with the headline "Wichita, Sedgwick County ready to start the engine on roads projects."