The intersection of 31st and Iowa streets won’t fail because a Home Depot store is built there, a state transportation official said Monday night.

That’s because the intersection is likely to be “overwhelmed” by more than 100,000 vehicles a day by 2025 whether or not Home Depot is built, the official said. That would probably require the construction of an interchange.

“I can’t say that if Home Depot went away tomorrow, these numbers would go down appreciably,” said Chris Huffman, a senior engineer with the Kansas Department of Transportation. “They might not.”

Huffman spoke at a meeting sponsored by the South Side Coalition, a group of four south Lawrence neighborhoods opposed to the proposed Home Depot construction and the influx of traffic they say it would bring.

More than two dozen people attended, including City Commissioner Jim Henry; Home Depot’s Lawrence attorney; South Iowa Street property owners; and neighborhood residents. Bob Suderman, vice president of the Indian Hills Neighborhood Assn., stayed close to the speakers with a tape recorder.

City commissioners will decide the fate of the intersection at their March 5 meeting. The current plan calls for the city and Home Depot to spend more than $1.4 million each (along with another $300,000 by the state) to expand 31st and Iowa to include double left-turn lanes on each approach. Construction, Home Depot officials hope, would be complete by January 2003.

With those improvements, Huffman said, “you would have satisfactory levels of service  although at some points just barely” through 2006. Traffic would be complicated by the need to coordinate two new traffic signals on 31st Street: one at Ousdahl and another, between Iowa and Ousdahl, in front of the entrance to the store.

“Why would somebody want to make improvements that would only be good for three years?” asked Anne Marvin, a south Lawrence resident.

Huffman said the intersection already has problems.

“You gain something with the improvements,” he said. “I think we can see some safety improvements here.”

Audience members peppered Huffman with suggestions of different road alignments. They also asked him to compare the 31st and Iowa intersection with Sixth Street and Wakarusa Drive, where Home Depot has optioned land as a backup site. Regardless of whether the store locates there, the city is planning to spend $2.5 million, along with $21 million by the state, to improve Sixth Street in a two-year project starting in 2004.

“I think future conditions, as far as traffic volumes and general conditions, would be very similar,” Huffman said.

He said store representatives have been diligent about redrafting their traffic plans to meet KDOT concerns.

“Whatever anybody’s opinion of them,” Huffman said, “they are not afraid to keep trying.”