news1@ulyssesnews.com
The Kansas Department of Transportation is conducting a study to improve mobility, safety and accessibility in Southwest Kansas.
The Southwest Kansas Highway Mobility and Expansion Strategy will study road use in the area and examine how to make that movement more efficient, and it wants Grant County’s input.
The county commission hosted a Zoom call June 17, with K-DOT officials, who asked if the county was interested in appointing someone to join in on the study.
Once complete, the study will create a plan for future transportation priorities and investments in the region. Highways considered are U.S. 50 expansion east of Dodge City; U.S. 50 expansion to a four-lane expressway in Finney and Gray counties; U.S. 54 expansion in Seward County, particularly east of the Highway 54/83 intersection in Liberal; U.S. 83 Advanced Technology and U.S. 83 reconstruction and passing lanes in Finney County.
U.S. 56 is also a top corridor of study, and improvements to U.S. 160 in Grant County are also being studied.
Corey Fischer with infrastructure design firm HNTB in Kansas City presented to the commission, and basically said they are looking for someone from Grant County to join the advisory group for the study, which is focusing on 43 counties in Southwest Kansas.
“The main thing for the study is to address mobility, safety and accessibility in Southwest Kansas,” Fischer said. “It’s called the Southwest Kansas Highway Mobility and Expansion Strategy, emphasis on expansion because that’s looking like what most of the study is going to eye is whether or not certain corridors are going to be either expanded to 4-lane or expanded with more passing lanes on certain highways.”
KDOT held “listening sessions” in Liberal, Garden City and Dodge City, as well as others, in March, where surveys were conducted to identify perceived transportation needs.
“Expansion was one of the highest-ranked items on the list,” Fischer said. “How do we effectively address those expansions in a way that’s orderly and in a way that fits the budgets of K-DOT over the next several transportation programs.”
The study is expected to last another year with the goal of developing a blueprint for future transportation investment.
“There’s not going to be a specific project that is identified, it’s gonna be more of a group of improvement projects in the Southwest Kansas study area that are then gonna be ideally put into some sequential order of ways that it makes sense to stack these types of improvements to make sure that Southwest Kansas has a gameplan for future transportation investment,” Fischer said. “You’re looking at improvements will go from 2030 all the way to 2050.”
None of the commissioners committed to being on the advisory group themselves but did say they would look for someone interested in representing Grant County.
•The commission approved a John Deere Gator from American Implement in the amount of $11,191.84 for the Grant County Civic Center and will trade in an $800 Ross U cart for a total of $10,391.64. Civic Center Director Mari Honstead received a second bid for $15,400 from Country Feeds in Montezuma, but the commission chose the lowest bid.
The Gator should arrive and be ready for use in time for the Grant County Fair in July.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here