What is going on with the proposed Northwest Expressway? Here’s the latest
The Kansas Department of Transportation’s new feasibility study for a Northwest Expressway that would connect Maize and Goddard has been delayed until the first quarter of next year.
But an economic impact study being conducted by the newly formed Northwest Expressway Corridor Association should be ready no later than next month, said Bryan Frye, a founding member and one of the chairs of the public-private partnership that is advocating for the new roadway.
KDOT is still working with GFT Infrastructure on some contractual issues that need to be resolved before the feasibility study can go forward, Sedgwick County Commissioner Stephanie Wise said in a July 15 email to The Eagle.
When KDOT announced plans for the survey last December, it said the project would be done this summer. In a July 15 email to The Eagle, KDOT said the revised schedule “reflects adjustments to the study timeline,” without further elaboration.
“While I know this is not the timeline many of us were hoping for,” Wise said about the delay in the KDOT survey, “I remain fully supportive of this study and committed to seeing this project move forward. The Northwest Expressway continues to be an important long-term transportation priority for western Sedgwick County, and I look forward to the study’s completion so we can keep the project moving in the right direction.”
KDOT initiated what it called a major investment study looking at a possible Northwest Expressway in 1997, according to documents prepared by Bucher, Willis & Ratliff at the time.
Since then, interest in the project from a variety of players has run hot and cold, and it has never been given a final approval from KDOT.
“I’m a student of the study done in the ’90s,” Frye said in a July 15 phone interview with The Eagle. “It made certain predictions, and if you look at the Census numbers (for Goddard and Maize) they blew through the job prediction and population numbers.”
When Wichita considers its best opportunities for future growth, west has the most potential, Frye said.
Not surprisingly, leaders in Maize and Goddard are among those voicing their disappointment in the KDOT survey delay.
“While we are certainly anxious to see the results and better understand how nearly 30 years of economic growth, development patterns and changing transportation needs have affected the project’s feasibility, we also recognize the importance of completing the study thoroughly and accurately,” said Maize City Manager Nick Gregory, via email.
Goddard City Manager Craig Crossette agreed, saying via email he understood that a project of this magnitude must be studied carefully.
Even if the surveys indicate a need for the expressway, that doesn’t mean the project automatically gets adopted by KDOT.
“Any future corridor would involve additional planning, right-of-way evaluation, environmental review, funding considerations, and coordination among local jurisdictions before any project decisions are made,” said J.B. Wilson, KDOT’s public information officer for the Wichita metropolitan area.
He said local population growth is one of many factors evaluated by city and county planners when they consider future transportation needs.
In 2000, Goddard had a population of 2,037 and Maize had 1,868 residents, according to Census data. Based on last year’s Census estimates, Maize’s population had shot up to 7,853 while Goddard had an estimated 6,638 people.
The current route of the Northwest Expressway would start where K-96 is at 45th Street North and Maize Road and take it 12 miles to the southwest, ending near Kellogg and the 183rd Street intersection, according to previous reporting. Right-of-way for 38% of the needed land has been secured, according to Frye.
“The demand is certainly there,” he said. “What we have been saying is the land has been acquired. There’s a route. Things are getting done.”
It might not happen in the next five or 10 years, Frye said. But that’s what makes a timely completion of the KDOT study so important.
“Maybe that determines how quickly it does need to be done,” he said.
Kim Edgington, a zoning and land-use consultant and former planning and zoning administrator for the city of Maize, took news of the latest delay in stride.
“When I started with the city of Maize in 2005, that project was on the drawing board at that point,” she said. “It was kind of a running joke that we who were working there at that time were never going to see the fruition of that project.”
At that time, estimates put the total cost of the project at around $500 million, Edgington said. Today, she predicts the cost will be at least double the original estimate.
“And that kind of becomes a built-in excuse against it,” she said. “It’s too expensive.”
KDOT, for its part, said a project cost estimate has not been established, and it’s too early to estimate a construction timeline, should the project move forward.