City removes trees on 25th Street off Amidon for road project

A half-mile avenue of Chinese pistache trees that glow in the fall on West 25th Street in northwest Wichita has been shortened because of a project to widen Amidon.

The first eight trees on 25th Street just west of Amidon were removed Wednesday, said Steve Degenhardt, construction manager for the city of Wichita. The reason is that there are not enough breaks in the median on 25th Street to handle the traffic that will be rerouted during construction, he said. Amidon will be widened to five lanes from 21st to 29th streets in a project that has just begun and will be completed late this year, he said. A left-turn lane also will be added on 25th Street at Amidon.

“The rest of the trees won’t be disturbed,” Degenhardt said of his expectations of the 25th Street median, and at least five of the trees that have been removed will be replaced next year – though not at the same size.

“They are certainly mature trees. I certainly cringed and went, ‘This is not going to be good,’” when he saw that the trees would need to be removed, Degenhardt said.

Mary Seitz drives several miles each day during the fall to watch the long alley of trees, from Amidon to Hyacinth, just shy of I-235, change color.

“This street is a daily don’t-miss event for me at this time of year,” she said last fall. “Eventually it will be a solid half-mile of color.”

Seitz was driving by Wednesday when she saw some of the trees being removed.

“I’m distressed, because those trees are ... pretty old, and they won’t look the same for another 20 years,” she said Thursday. “It’s really too bad to destroy something that beautiful that took that long to grow.”

Trees also have been removed along Amidon to make way for the widening, Degenhardt said. He doesn’t know exactly how many trees are gone, but he said 200 trees are to be planted along Amidon once the project is complete.

This story was originally published February 12, 2015 at 6:27 PM with the headline "City removes trees on 25th Street off Amidon for road project."