After years of preparation and planning, work should begin this summer to widen Sixth Street all the way to the South Lawrence Trafficway.

“It’s a two-season project in my mind,” City Manager Mike Wildgen said recently. “They’ll get started this summer and hopefully be finished in fall of ’05.”

The state’s budget woes have created concerns about the Sixth Street project in recent years, but the Kansas Department of Transportation said in January it was moving ahead with plans to start construction this summer.

The $14.6 million project is designed to rebuild Sixth Street from Champions Lane — the unbuilt road north of Sixth Street that would lead to Free State High School — west to the trafficway.

The project will widen Sixth Street to four lanes, with room for right-turn lanes and double left-turn lanes at each intersection. A grass median will run down the middle.

The city already has spent $600,000 designing the project, and KDOT is buying property to make way for the new lanes, said Terese Gorman, city engineer. Construction is expected to begin this summer and last into late 2005.

Wildgen said the total city share of the project should be around $4 million.

The city prepared for the project in 2001 by annexing more than 600 acres of land between Wakarusa Drive and the trafficway. The state wouldn’t allow the city to go into debt to finance its share of the project otherwise, officials said.

Some residents of the area complained about the development that will head their way with annexation. But according to land-ownership records, much of the property targeted for annexation is already owned by holding companies that city officials say are waiting for development opportunities.

Even if the state’s budget problems keep the city from landing another KDOT project anytime soon, Gorman said in January, officials shouldn’t complain.

“They’ve definitely committed to this project in its entirety,” Gorman said in January. “We need to be thankful for what we’re getting, because we’re getting a lot.”

Once the road is completed, Sixth Street west of Wakarusa Drive is expected to become a hub of development activity. Developers have already asked for approval on both eastern corners at the intersection of Sixth Street and the trafficway.

“It’s seen as a newly developing area,” Wildgen said. “The infrastructure’s not been there, but roads are a major part of it.”

He added: “Access usually means opportunity. Good access usually means good opportunity.”