A street-savvy engineering veteran’s $55-an-hour input could save Douglas County taxpayers more than $4 million.

George Williams, who retired this year after 36 years as Lawrence’s director of public works, is heading up the county’s drive to upgrade a gravel road that connects Kasold Drive and the South Lawrence Trafficway.

The reconstruction project would cost $4.4 million if the county used existing plans that originally were developed four years ago, said Keith Browning, the county’s director of public works. But the county only has $2.4 million set aside next year for the work.

Today, after Williams agreed to review the oft-delayed plans as a county special projects engineer, officials now are working with a scaled-down concept that could cost as little as $300,000.

“Anytime you can get somebody with George’s experience, it’s going to be a huge help,” Browning said. “He’s obviously been involved with many, many projects and has a lot of good experience. It’s been good for the county, I know that.

“We don’t have the budget to add people. By hiring George on a part-time basis, he’s been able to get this project moving again. If we hadn’t done that, we’d still be waiting.”

When Williams retired Jan. 1, the engineer already had left quite a legacy. Since 1966 he held responsibility for the city’s growing network of streets, storm sewers and other vital infrastructure; in 1996, the Kansas Chapter of the American Public Works Assn. named its public service award after him, and four years later the national association ranked Williams among the top 10 of the association’s 26,000 members.

Today, a street that runs alongside Langston Hughes School in western Lawrence bears his name: George Williams Way.

But Williams’ retirement, no matter how much he earned it, was short-lived.

“I can’t sit around and watch TV all day long,” he said.

Within three months he’d signed on as a project manager for Doug Stephens, a Lawrence developer whose Stonegate subdivision west of Kasold and south of the Kansas Turnpike is adding dozens of new homes and duplexes to the Lawrence market.

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Williams also is working on Landplan Engineering’s oversight of a $1.1 million runway-extension project at Lawrence Municipal Airport, where construction is expected to begin next week.

And Monday morning, Williams will return to the public forum he knows so well, only on a different stage.

Old road, new plan

Williams will join Browning for a 9 a.m. meeting at the Douglas County Courthouse, where they will brief county commissioners about their scaled-down vision for extending Kasold.

Instead of building an entirely new two-lane road to extend Kasold from its intersection with 31st Street south to the trafficway, the new plan would turn to a less-costly alternative by revamping the existing stretch of East 1200 Road.

By preserving the existing road base, the county could avoid affecting water levels in the adjacent floodplain, Williams said. And that, in turn, likely would eliminate the need to build a new, costly bridge.

Browning said that the latest plan essentially would replace the road’s existing gravel surface with fresh pavement, north of the trafficway.

“We’re probably closer to $300,000 than we are to a million,” Browning said. “It’s quite a bit less expensive.”

With $2.4 million set aside for the work, county commissioners could end up with about $2 million of unexpected money to spend on other construction projects next year.

Williams said he was looking forward to helping share the new idea Monday morning. But while he’s attended more than 1,000 such meetings at city hall, this time he’ll be off the front line.

After all, Williams may be working, but he’s still retired.

“It’s a lot less pressure,” said Williams, 72. “I’m having fun. I enjoy what I’m doing. And I can kind of set my own time schedule if I want to go fishing, I can go fishing.”