Efforts to get Northwest Expressway through west Wichita are renewed

The Kansas Department of Transportation is taking the first step in getting back on track a project that would expand K-254 from Maize to Goddard.

The department has agreed to undertake an updated feasibility study for the Northwest Expressway project, which towns like Goddard and Maize said would be a game changer for them.

“We can’t wait another 20 years to do this. We’ve got to get going,” Maize City Manager Nick Gregory said.

In its earlier design concepts, the highway begins near K-96 and Tyler and stretches for 12 miles southwest, ending near the Kellogg and 183rd Street intersection.

Sedgwick County and other local governments signed on to a letter earlier this year asking KDOT for the updated study.

That’s expected to be completed by next summer.

“The update will include a review of the original [Major Investment Study] scenarios, an assessment of potential economic and environmental impacts in the study area, consideration of possible interim solutions or phasing, and updated cost estimates,” KDOT said in a statement.

The project has been discussed off and on since the early 2000s, and nearly 40% of highway rights of way have been purchased, mostly near Maize and Goddard.

Both cities have seen a dramatic increase in population since the 1990s, each going from fewer than 2,000 people in 1990 to more than 5,000 in 2020, according to U.S. Census Data.

Before KDOT agreed to do an updated study, however, the department said the project was not a priority that was brought up during 2021 and 2023 local consult processes, leading it to focus on other infrastructure projects in the area.

The push by the local governments, especially at a recent local-consult meeting, put the project back on the department’s radar.

While Maize and Goddard have already both grown significantly over the past few decades, the cities are hoping that if the expansion is completed, it could bring more economic development to the area, much like the K-96 expansion in east Wichita.

“That’s really probably what the future [of] this carries,” Gregory said. “You’re going to be defining the next commercial corridors that are out west, if this project ends up happening.”

Goddard Mayor George Liebe said it could also alleviate traffic along some of the cities’ main roads and highways.

“It takes pressure off of 235, it’ll take pressure off of Kellogg going into town, Maize Road,” Liebe said. “We’ve had accidents out here in the county because people are doing what they can to try to get around town and avoid the traffic.”

The public will be invited to give feedback on the project as part of the feasibility study. Details on those meetings are yet to be announced.

“Whenever we have the opportunity to do the engagement piece of the study, I think that’s going to be really important,” Goddard City Administrator Craig Crossette said.

Next steps on the project will be determined based on the study’s findings.

“If it proves that we don’t need it, I’ll listen,” Sedgwick County Commissioner Stephanie Wise said. “I don’t anticipate being wrong. I think that the need’s going to be there.

“We need to figure out what the funding formula is going to be to get it done, understanding that this isn’t going to happen tomorrow. It’s a huge project.”