For Lana Hayes, the handful of pavement-grinding machines, dozens of orange cones and hundreds of bright-red brake lights along Sixth Street are adding up to a whole lot of trouble.

Again.

Nearly a year after city-hired crews started tearing up the intersection of Sixth Street and Kasold Drive, and almost four years after a string of Sixth Street tie-ups started with Hy-Vee installing a turn lane outside its store, another set of contractors is at it again — this time less than two miles down the road.

The road work — preparations to repave a 1.6-mile stretch of Sixth, from Arkansas to Arizona streets — squeezed traffic into one lane in each direction Tuesday just west of downtown, adding a new layer of angst to an already-high level of frustration.

The road carries 25,000 to 30,000 vehicles a day.

“It’s a pain in the butt,” said Hayes, waiting for a break in traffic. “I go to the Dollar General all the time. I play bingo at the Eagles Lodge. I live in North Lawrence, and I use Sixth Street a lot — to go to Dillons, to get around. …

“This is a main road here. They should do a better job organizing the work. Just having them jump from one end of the street to another just adds to the frustration.”

Crews Tuesday started grinding off the surface-level pavement between Missouri and Colorado streets. They have 45 working days to get the entire job done, leading city officials to expect completion by the end of July.

Before then, crews will be grinding away the remaining surface and fixing selected areas of crumbling curbs and cracked gutters. The actual pavement will be installed once the other work is done, and then only at night — so traffic delays can be kept to a minimum.

Cars line up nearly bumper-to-bumper on Sixth Street between Colorado and Missouri streets. A resurfacing crew began working on the road Tuesday for a two-month project on Sixth Street from Arkansas Street to Arizona Street.

Apology

“I apologize for the inconvenience that everybody has to go through,” City Manager Mike Wildgen said. “I don’t know how to massage people, other than we generally have to maintain the streets. And we get as many complaints when the streets have potholes and poor drainage and that type of thing as we do when we get the work done (late).

“Really, there’s no good balance on it. Because if you don’t maintain it, it will fall apart at an even quicker rate. There will be potholes quicker, and there will be poor turning lanes and markings and everything that goes along with those things.”

The $462,297 repaving project is partly financed with a $200,000 grant from the Kansas Department of Transportation. The department allocates money each year to help care for city roads that help carry traffic between major highways. Sixth Street serves as U.S. Highway 40, a major route for traffic heading to and from the Kansas Turnpike, U.S. Highway 59 and the South Lawrence Trafficway.

Ron Quick, owner of Quick’s Bar-B-Q, 1527 W. Sixth St., counts on traffic to help keep his dining room filled and drive-through lane hopping. Tuesday’s work slowed business to a simmer.

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Earlier this year, Quick watched as Lawrence Pizza Co. closed and Henry T’s Bar & Grill struggled while the Sixth and Kasold project languished. Now he’s bracing for a tight couple of months, hoping his loyal customers help carry his business through until traffic returns to normal.

“It’s not good, but … every day’s a holiday. We just take it as it comes,” Quick said. “We’ll persevere.”

Driver appreciation

Maggie Wilson, who lives south of Sixth Street off Monterey Way, said she was happy to see crews working on the street. Sure, the reconstruction of Sixth and Kasold lingered longer than expected, but she figures that getting a smooth ride farther down Sixth Street easily is worth another couple months of minor delays.

“I appreciate that they’re bothering to do it,” Wilson said after buying pet food at Lawrence Feed & Farm Supply, 545 Wis. “I appreciate good roads. Otherwise, it’s Missouri, and people are complaining about potholes.”

The repaving project actually only is the beginning of even more disruptions on Sixth Street.

Last month, the Kansas Department of Transportation lined up a contractor to rebuild Sixth from Folks Road west to the South Lawrence Trafficway. The project — a $7.6 million construction job — will add a center turn lane to Sixth Street and rebuild what has been a rural highway into a city-standard street, complete with curbs, gutters, lights, pedestrian/bike paths, raised medians and other features.

That work is expected to begin later this summer and last into next year. Already on tap for next year: repaving Sixth Street from Arkansas to Massachusetts streets, and upgrading water lines along Sixth Street from Tennessee to Massachusetts streets.

“Sixth Street’s going to be a busy place for the next two or three years,” Wildgen said.

Sarah Arbuthnot thinks she can take it, even if it means her drive to Hy-Vee for groceries will take longer.

But she figures that at least the repaving shouldn’t take as long as Sixth and Kasold, which started in August, was projected to be complete by the end of last year, and still has some work to go.

“That’s been going on forever, and that’s been annoying in its own way,” said Arbuthnot, who lives just southwest of Sixth and Arkansas streets. “And this is a real pain, just to get home. But I understand why they’re doing it. It has to get done, and this is as good a time as any.”