You won’t be able to drive west on this busy Wichita street for a few days. Here’s why
Work on the Sedgwick County Courthouse downtown will close Central Avenue to westbound traffic from Main Street to Wichita Street starting Tuesday.
Work crews will spend three days setting up a large crane that will be used to replace the cooling system on the roof of the courthouse, 525 N. Main. During that time, all westbound traffic on Central in front of the courthouse will be closed, Sedgwick County spokesperson Nicole Gibbs said Friday.
“The center westbound lane of Central Ave. will re-open several days later, but the other westbound lane will remain closed through completion of the project by mid-Feb. 2024,” a Sedgwick County news release said.
The intersection at Central and Main will stay open and the project will not block public access to the 1956 courthouse or the parking garage at 603 N. Main St.
“Semi-trucks will then pull into the cut-out lane on Main St. to allow the crane to lift three large cooling towers and steel beams from the trucks onto the rooftop of the courthouse,” according to the county.
”Replacing and upgrading our cooling towers is a large undertaking, but necessary to keep the courthouse comfortable during the hot summer months and to ensure reliability,” Sedgwick County Director of Facilities Andrew Dilts said. “Even though a giant crane will be part of the courthouse landscape for a few weeks, the only real inconvenience to the public should be the temporary lane closures on westbound Central.”
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