Kellogg expansion survey starts Monday, but it likely won’t affect drivers, KDOT says
Early work is set to begin Monday on a $166 million Kellogg highway project that is expected to set the stage for further improvements to US-54 in Butler County.
For now, it likely won’t affect commercial traffic or slow down the daily commute for Andover residents who cross the Sedgwick County line to work in and visit Wichita.
The Kansas Department of Transportation will begin a field survey of a 3.7 mile stretch of US-54 from 127th Street east to half a mile east of 159th Street in Andover as early as Monday. The survey is expected to be completed by July 1, KDOT spokesman Tim Potter said in a news release about the project.
“If it affects drivers, it is expected to be minimal,” Potter said. “That’s because the survey is typically done off the highway.”
The survey is needed to gather information for a detailed design of the proposed highway expansion from K-96 to Andover.
Property owners and tenants along Kellogg could be contacted by surveyors if they need to access to their private property, KDOT’s news release said.
U.S. Route 54 runs east and west, from El Paso, Texas, to Griggsville, Illinois. In Wichita, it is known as the Kellogg Freeway and is the premier east-west thoroughfare connecting Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport to several major interstate highway systems, such as I-235, I-135, I-35 and the Kansas Turnpike.
Kellogg is largely funded through sales tax dollars in the city limits and recently received what is sure to be a short-lived traffic-cone reprieve after 30 years of perpetual construction.
The Kansas Department of Transportation seeks to improve the 3.7 miles of Kellogg from the K-96 interchange east to the Andover and Butler County border at 159th Street East.
That particular stretch of highway has been a high priority for city officials since at least 2008, following a study by Butler County and Andover that projected the need for six lanes because of increased traffic.
The project has been criticized for expediting Wichita’s urban sprawl into the suburbs while the city’s public transportation program has struggled.
The $166 million project was one of 25 announced by Gov. Laura Kelly in December as part of the state’s 10-year Eisenhower Legacy Transportation Program. The only project earmarked for Sedgwick County, it’s expected to be funded through a combination of state and federal money, including $2.6 billion Kansas is set to receive in a massive federal infrastructure bill.
Kelly said the project is necessary to address “a significant bottleneck” at Kellogg and K-96, a state highway that allows motorists to bypass the Wichita’s core and connect to other highways leading out of Wichita.
This story was originally published February 25, 2022 at 2:16 PM.