By Elizabeth Grys
Current construction is slowing down traffic to the college, while seeking to repair and widen Quivira Road and nearby interstate highways as work continues into next year.
“Quivira Road will be pretty much under construction from 99th Street all the way down to 119th Street,” said Justin Nickel, civil engineer of Public Works at Overland Park City Hall.
The three projects include work from 99th Street to 105th Street, 105th Street to 109th Street, and College Boulevard (111th Street) to 119th Street.
The project from 99th to 105th Street is already underway as is the section of construction from 105th to 109th Street, which passes through the interchange of Interstate 435 and Interstate 50. The College Boulevard to 119th Street construction is currently out for bids for a contractor, construction is expected to begin in April or May, Nickel said. All of these projects are aiming for a completion date of Nov. 2012.
The two city projects from 99th to 105th Street and College Boulevard to 119th Street are being expanded from two lanes to three lanes, and simultaneously the older asphalt is being replaced by fresher, more stable asphalt.
“So really when we get done, Quivira Road should be three lanes all the way from 99th Street to 119th Street,” Nickel said. “It should add capacity.”
The city intends to keep Quivira Road open throughout all of the construction. The city plans to construct Quivira Road to shift drivers into the inside lane while the outside lane is being built. When the new outside lane is finished, drivers will be routed to the new lane so workers can reconstruct the middle lane, Nickel said.
While the city works to try to keep at least one lane of Quivira Road clear at all times, there will be three separate one-week time frames where the east entrance to the college turning into campus from Quivira Road will be closed to traffic and inaccessible to exits or entrances.
“The two entrances on College Boulevard will always be open and we set up detour signs to send people over there,” Nickel said.
While Quivira Road may be blocked off, work is finishing on Interstate 69 north of I-435.
“Hopefully if you can, you can switch over and use that new pavement and the new lanes on Highway 69,” Nickel said. “I know part of it is under construction as well, but the city is just asking that everybody bear with us.”
The Quivira Road interchange and the bulk of the roadwork on the highway stretches all the way across I-435 East over to I-69, and then along I-69 South from I-435 to 119th Street. However this project is controlled and largely funded by the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT).
“[Construction on I-435 and I-69] is working towards modernization and expansion projects which mitigate congestion,” said Burt Morey, metro engineer for KDOT. “So what we’re gonna do is build what’s called collector-distributor roads that are offset from the mainline and we take that weaving motion and take it away from the mainline traffic.”
Collector-distributor roads hold the main goal of easing the transition of entering and exiting the mainline traffic roads by using a separate lane running alongside the mainline roads. Collector-distributor roads are able to weave lanes into the main traffic ways for both incoming and outgoing cars with less conflict from lane changes.
KDOT’s goal is to eventually have collector-distributor lanes all over the place, Morey said. Now the current project is to have collector-distributor roads west of I-69 and south of I-435 to ease traffic.
Overland Park’s Public Works office and construction teams working on Quivira Road are aiming for completion in November of 2012. KDOT anticipates that their highway work on I-435 and I-69 should be complete by November of 2013.
Contact Elizabeth Grys, reporting correspondent, at egrys@jccc.edu.