Bye bye bridge: Wichita votes to demolish one central crossing, fix up another
Wichita will be demolishing a longstanding but barricaded bridge over the central canal that bisects the city, but will repair another one to make it safer to walk to and from McAdams Park.
The bridge that will come down in the coming year is known as the 10th Street Bridge. Deemed unfit for auto travel, it has been barricaded to cars for several years but remained open to foot traffic.
A similar bridge at 15th Street has the opposite problem — safe for cars but unsafe for walkers. It will be getting some much-needed repair so the barricaded sidewalks can be reopened.
Both bridges cross the central flood-control canal, also known as Chisholm Creek Canal, that runs between the elevated northbound and southbound lanes of I-135.
The two projects are the highlights of the city’s annual bridge repair and improvement program.
The $500,000 budget for the bridge work, to be paid from the city’s sales tax income, was approved by the City Council Tuesday.
“We’ve got a pretty long history with these two bridges, going back several city councils ago,” said City Engineer Gary Janzen.
It’s been an on-again-off-again topic of debate since at least 2003, according to Eagle reports and city documents.
At that time, the city considered scrapping both the 10th and 15th street bridges, along with another aging bridge at 11th Street.
That plan died amid concerns that retaining only the thoroughfare bridges at 9th, 13th and 17th streets would increase traffic congestion, hamper emergency vehicle access and further divide the historically African-American neighborhoods situated on opposite sides of the freeway.
Brandon Johnson. the councilman who represents the area, said he’s attended multiple discussions about what to do with the bridges and “there were passionate arguments on both sides.”
The neighborhood no longer opposes the removal of the 10th Street Bridge and the 11th Street Bridge is no longer a candidate for demolition, Johnson said.
The 15th Street Bridge offers the only entryway to the center of McAdams Park from the east side of the canal. The park runs about a half-mile south to north between 13th and 17th streets so it would be a long walk around to get to the park from east of the canal.
At 15th Street, “I don’t think there’s any support for removing the entirety of the bridge,” he said.
City officials once considered converting the bridge for pedestrian and bike traffic only, but rethought that plan amid neighborhood controversy.
The city may consider that again, but it won’t come up until three years from now, when the bridge is scheduled for a more complete overhaul as part of the city’s Capital Improvement Plan, Johnson said.
It’s been kept open to cars while the city plans the renovation of the park, including a new swimming pool that residents fought for and won after the city closed and removed an old pool there.
“I think we’re kind of waiting now to see what happens with the overall McAdams master plan and so many things that are happening there,” Janzen said. “With the McAffee Pool opening there this summer, we are keeping that open to traffic.”
The current project will fix “deteriorating conditions, especially on the sidewalk sections,” Janzen said. “Our maintenance crews have barricaded that off. It’s still safe for vehicular traffic but any pedestrians crossing there are having to use the roadway.”
The 10th Street Bridge has simply outlived its usefulness, he said.
“We probably should have gotten that removed prior to now and it’s time we got that done,” Janzen said. “We need to get that removed, make some improvements to the channel, just make the area a lot cleaner, a lot safer.”
This story was originally published April 6, 2021 at 2:35 PM.
