The route for a controversial highway project remains undecided, and state transportation officials will ask for the public’s help choosing the correct path during a hearing later this month in Baldwin.

The public hearing will give people a chance to help direct the proposed relocation of U.S. Highway 59 between Lawrence and Ottawa. The Kansas Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration have completed a draft environmental impact statement for the project.

It concluded that a new four-lane freeway should be built to help cut down on accident rates.

But the draft document did not settle the location issue. The new freeway, the draft said, should be built either along a path about 300 feet east of the existing U.S. 59, or about a mile east of the existing highway.

The hearing will be from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. April 30 in the cafeteria at Baldwin High School, 415 Eisenhower St.. State engineers, property experts and others will be available to answer individual questions, and a court reporter will take testimony for the public record.

“We’re hoping people come to the meeting, first of all, with an open mind,” said Marty Matthews, a KDOT spokesman. “Both of these are legitimate alignments. The reason we have them both still out there is we have to hear more from all the people involved, because they are so close in so many things.”

Both alignments would be expected to cut the rate of fatality accidents by 80 percent, and cut the rate of injury accidents by 60 percent, according to the draft EIS.

The 18-mile stretch of U.S. 59 is among the deadliest of its kind in the state, according to KDOT, with an accident rate 25 percent higher than those on similar highways elsewhere in Kansas.

But there are differences in the two proposals:

Building about 300 feet east of the existing alignment would cost an estimated $210.3 million (in 2007 dollars) and displace 33 residences and eight businesses. It would require acquisition of about 960 acres of new right-of-way, and affect 882.8 acres of prime farmland.

Building about a mile to the east of the existing alignment would cost an estimated $199.4 million (in 2007 dollars) and displace 11 residences and two businesses.

It would require acquisition of about 970 acres of new right-of-way, and affect 869 acres of prime farmland.

Comments received during the meeting, plus written comments sent to KDOT by May 30, will be used to create a final EIS, which must select a “preferred route” for the highway project.

The final EIS then would have a 30-day public comment period before the Federal Highway Administration would issue its own “record of decision,” which would settle the route issue.

Construction tentatively is scheduled to begin in 2007.