Kansas House of Representatives
Volume 2012, Issue 21: September 30, 2012
In This Issue
- NE Kansas 5 County Regional Transportation Study
- Keep in Touch
NE Kansas 5 County Regional Transportation Study
This summer, the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) came to
Leavenworth to brief the county and cities on the results of their
Northeast Kansas 5 County Regional Transportation Study, in which KDOT
looked at transportation system management and travel demand. The two
phase study has three goals: assess multi-modal transportation, assess
and prioritize the needs of the region and develop strategies to address
them. This meeting was about Phase I of the study. The five counties
included in the study are Leavenworth, Douglas, Johnson, Miami and
Wyandotte.
There are five basic trends KDOT determined are affecting transportation
management and demand in the five county region: changing population,
vehicle technology, increased telecommuting/flex hours, development
patterns, and gas prices. They compared these trends to the projected
necessary funding twenty years beyond the current T-Works program.
T-WORKS is the 10-year, $8 billion transportation program designed to
preserve highway infrastructure, create jobs (175,000 jobs over the 10
years), and provide multimodal economic development opportunities across
the state that was passed in 2010. T-Works made the $8 million promise
to complete at least $8 million worth of projects in each Kansas county
and last January 32 projects were moved ahead of their original timeline
in order to accelerate $50 million worth of preservation projects to
produce jobs ahead of schedule and to take advantage of low construction
costs.
In the study, KDOT determined the area population that is aging needs
ways to stay home and not drive so far or as much, and the younger
population also wants to live closer to their place of employment and to
be able to ride their bicycles or walk. Vehicle technology is producing
more efficient vehicles and rush hour is changing because of the
increase in telecommuting and the use of flexible hours in employment.
The development patterns show that people are moving into core areas and
do not like urban sprawl. Then of course, rising gas prices are a big
factor resulting in more car pooling and less driving. As far as
funding, KDOT explained that prior to the T-Works plan they talked to
the communities of Kansas to get their input as to what each community
wants or needs in its transportation plan and then ranked them
accordingly. The KDOT priority list shows it would take $15 billion to
pay for items that are "wish list" type projects, $6.9 billion to
pay for "top tier" needs, and $5.7 billion for projects that already
have funding or can be achieved with already available funding.
KDOT explained their policy considerations used in the study to assess
the area needs. They were to manage existing road lanes before building
new ones. If new lanes were to be built in a metro area, they were to
be managed. They were to use new strategies for commute times such as
allowing buses on the shoulder, park & ride sites and ride share
programs. They were to correct any bottlenecks and expand their
incident management programs to cut down on congestion. They were to
enhance KDOT partnerships with counties and cities.
Projects for the Leavenworth County area included the bridge between
Leavenworth and Missouri and K-7. You have probably noticed the T-Works
sign on the bridge to Missouri. It is referring to an ongoing study of
the bridge as to how best to develop it for the future. It needs to be
widened so that it is not shut down when repairs are done, as we all
recently experienced, and needs to tie into the city's future and
ongoing development projects (a new National Guard Armory, the new
Hotel, etc). KDOT explained that Missouri only has the money to do road
maintenance right now, so no expansion or new projects such as work on
the roads to the airport are currently possible. KDOT said that the
study showed that K-7 needs to be a freeway with extensive intersection
and access management. They are also looking at bicycle and pedestrian
use for the future, especially on any bridges.
County officials asked questions during the meeting about several local
transportation and infrastructure issues and proposed projects including
K-5, the K-7/I-70 interchange and a possible outerloop/bypass in the
County. KDOT explained that Kansas Highway 5 was not looked at in this
study. The County and Lansing officials explained to KDOT that a study
needs to be done on K-5 because its current condition is negatively
affecting economic development. Lansing officials stated that
businesses that choose to open in Leavenworth County need more and
improved access to highways. KDOT stated that it would need more
information because the only study done on K-5 to this point was a
safety study years ago. KDOT stated that the K-7/I-70 interchange is an
approved project under the current T-Works and is scheduled to start in
May 2013, but T-Works is only funding the first few stages. KDOT also
agreed to the request of the County Commission to run a scenario on an
outerloop/bypass project from the intersection of County Road 1/I-70 to
Metropolitan in Leavenworth, to determine if the proposal should be
studied.
As the meeting came to a close, a KDOT representative explained to me
that the State has funds set aside for projects that would help a new
business decide to come to Kansas if access to infrastructure is what is
stopping them. So if a business approaches a city or the state and says
it is ready to open up shop in Kansas but access to the highways is
stopping them, that T-Works already has funds built into the program.
This is great information for economic development opportunities in our
county and cities. For more information on the five county study and to
track Phase II, go to 5countystudy.org.
Keep in Touch
I am privileged and honored to be your voice in the Kansas Capitol. You
can track my activities on my website www.meier4kansas.com, my Facebook
page www.facebook.com/Meier4Kansas, and Twitter
www.twitter.com/melaniemeier.
If I can ever be of assistance to you, please feel free to contact me at
home or in Topeka. My office in Leavenworth is at 309 Cherokee St. My
Topeka office address is Kansas State Capitol, Topeka, KS 66612. You can
also reach me at the legislative hotline, 1-800-432-3924 or e-mail me at
melanie.meier@house.ks.gov.
If you need to directly contact a particular agency in state government,
you can find useful telephone numbers online at
http://da.state.ks.us/phonebook.
