Topeka ? Wider roads and good coffee.

What more could a driver want?

Several hundred million dollars’ worth of road projects are either under way or in the works for northeast Kansas.

“We have some extremely valuable, key improvements coming up that are very needed,” said Terry Heidner, director of planning and development for the Kansas Department of Transportation.

Steady traffic growth, which in many areas has exceeded projections, is helping move projects up the ladder, he said.

Some of those projects include widening U.S. Highway 59 in Douglas and Franklin counties, widening a portion of Interstate 435 in Johnson County and constructing a new Antioch Road interchange, and building a new Amelia Earhart Bridge in Atchison.

And then there are the turnpike projects: $100 million to widen a 14-mile stretch between Topeka and Lecompton that is under way, and a $132 million replacement of the Kansas River bridge in Lawrence, which will start soon.

“The real heavy traffic volumes are in this section,” said Richard Olson, head of design and construction for the Kansas Turnpike Authority.

“Douglas County has grown tremendously and that has definitely impacted the direction we move in,” he said.

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SLT MIA

But one project that remains on the shelf is the controversial South Lawrence Trafficway.

Once considered one of the most needed highways in Kansas, the odds of building the final leg of the trafficway remain up in the air.

Earlier this year, federal officials OK’d running the proposed four-lane highway along a 32nd Street alignment through the Baker Wetlands to complete the connection between Kansas Highway 10 east of Lawrence with Interstate 70 northwest of Lawrence.

Asked what, if any, progress would be made on the project in 2005, KDOT chief counsel Sally Howard said, “My guess would be litigation.”

Environmentalists and American Indian tribes have vowed to fight the project in court; they oppose the route because it would destroy wetlands.

Even without a legal fight, Howard said KDOT didn’t have the funds in the state’s 10-year comprehensive transportation plan to build the project anyway.

On schedule

In 2005, however, the state is scheduled to award a contract to reconstruct three miles of I-635 in Wyandotte County up to the Missouri state line at an approximate cost of $45 million. U.S. Highway 73 in Lansing also is slated for widening under an estimated $7 million project.

The following year, more than $100 million of work is expected to begin in Johnson County to I-435 at U.S. Highway 169 for widening and building a new Antioch interchange.

In 2007-08, contracts are scheduled to be awarded to make U.S. 59 a four-lane freeway from Douglas County to Ottawa; the estimated cost is $166 million.

KDOT also has scheduled the reconstruction of several major bridges over the next five years, including the Amelia Earhart bridge over the Missouri River on U.S. 59, which will cost more than $80 million, and the Delaware River bridge on Kansas Highway 4 in Jefferson County, an estimated $8 million project.

The Amelia Earhart Bridge is “an old bridge in bad shape,” Heidner said.

Meanwhile, the widening project on the turnpike will become more visible next year as crews grade and build embankments, starting in Lecompton and moving west while working in five-mile sections.

“Our authority has said we are not to close lanes for this project,” Olson said.

If lanes have to be closed, it will be for short durations and after rush hours, he said.

Meanwhile, work is starting on rebuilding the Kansas River bridge in Lawrence, which spans about 2,500 feet, making it the longest bridge on the turnpike.

The bridge’s anticipated life expires in 2012 and construction of a new one is expected to take two years. The bridge also will be realigned.

Over the past year, crews have placed heavy steel brackets under the bridge to relieve some of the stress on the structure, Olson said.

Beyond road improvements, Grandma Josie’s, a new coffee shop at the turnpike’s Lawrence Service Area, has opened to rave reviews, according to Lisa Callahan, a spokeswoman for the turnpike authority. She said the service area had become a common business meeting place for people between Topeka and Kansas City.