Faced with two choices for locating a controversial freeway, Douglas County commissioners said they would take the route that costs more, displaces more homes and businesses, and occupies more farmland.

And they’d recommend it mostly because it would be the surest way to fewer accidents on U.S. Highway 59 between Lawrence and Ottawa, a stretch considered among the state’s deadliest.

“Everybody says the road needs to be made safer as quickly as possible,” Commissioner Bob Johnson said. “The (chosen) alignment is more doable more quickly  so let’s do it.”

Commissioners voted Monday to seek construction of a $210.3 million freeway along a route 300 feet east of the current Highway 59, one of two options being considered by the Kansas Department of Transportation. Construction of the four-lane freeway would begin in 2007. It would be designated as Highway 59, leaving the existing highway to serve local traffic as a county road.

The commissioners’ recommendation will be added to a pile of public comments being gathered by KDOT, which intends to choose a route this summer. May 30 is the deadline for submitting comments.

Two viable options

In its draft environmental impact statement for the project, KDOT narrowed its list of viable options to two: either 300 feet east of U.S. 59; or a full mile to the east, at a cost of $199.4 million.

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 statement. The 18-mile stretch of Highway 59 has an accident rate 25 percent higher than those on similar highways elsewhere in Kansas.

From 1995 to 1999 along the stretch of highway, there were 376 accidents that left 193 people injured and 11 dead, KDOT said.

During Monday’s meeting, commissioners agreed a freeway should be built to improve safety and handle increased traffic. The only question was which location to support.

Building 300 feet east of U.S. 59 would displace 33 residences and eight businesses while affecting 883 acres of prime farmland, according to KDOT. Going a mile east would displace 11 homes and eight businesses while affecting 869 acres of prime farmland.

Commissioners weighed public comment collected last week and decided to send a letter to KDOT, saying that staying closer to the existing highway “represents the safest and best option to address traffic needs throughout the life of the proposed highway.”

‘New problems’

Moving a mile east would delay the project by another year to 18 months, Johnson said, because of likely legal action or regulatory problems associated with cutting a new road through a rural area.

“You’re plowing new environmental ground,” he said. “You’re likely to run into new problems with every fence row.”

Jere McElhaney, commission chairman, initially supported the less-expensive alternative. Besides costing less, he said, the easternmost route would help drive new development in the county.

But he agreed to sign the commission’s letter.

“I don’t have a choice but to live with it,” McElhaney said after the meeting. “And pay taxes on it.”

Ken Lassman, a spokesman for the Franklin-Douglas Counties Coalition of Concerned Citizens, said the group would continue pushing KDOT to build atop of or adjacent to the existing U.S. 59 Â whether it’s a freeway, expressway or “super-two” project.