County to consider 31st Street expansion

Douglas County commissioners will consider setting aside nearly $1.5 million in the coming years to help relieve traffic congestion along 31st Street in southeast Lawrence.

The commissioners are scheduled to meet Monday to discuss a proposed capital improvements plan, which would offer a financial road map for major construction projects during the next decade.

Among the proposals:

  • Spend $312,500 to help install temporary traffic signals, accommodate turn lanes and make other design changes at two 31st Street intersections: at Louisiana Street and at Haskell Avenue. Such costs would be split with the city of Lawrence and could be in place in 2006.
  • Spend $400,000 to pave roadside shoulders that would be built along a new 32nd Street, a four-lane road planned to run along the north side of the anticipated eastern leg of the South Lawrence Trafficway. The county would plan for paving the shoulders in 2009.
  • Spend $760,000 to help extend 31st Street from Haskell to O’Connell Road, a project that also would be slated for 2009. The total project’s construction cost would be expected to hit $4.4 million, most of it financed with assistance from federal transportation funds and Lawrence taxpayers.

‘Hot corner’

The focus on 31st Street comes as developers draw up plans for several new businesses, dozens of apartments and hundreds of homes southeast of town — an area expected to see even more construction activity once Lawrence’s planned sewage treatment plant opens along the Wakarusa River in 2011.

“That’s the hot corner,” said Charles Jones, commission chairman.

Making sure the area’s street network is big enough to handle the traffic load only makes sense, said Keith Browning, county engineer and director of public works.

“Obviously, we know that 31st Street is going to have to be improved,” Browning said. “The method for how that gets improved is a little bit up in the air now, because of the SLT, but it’s important to address it now. It’s best to start planning for it now.”

Commissioners meet Monday to review their capital improvement plan, which already includes an array of road repavings, bridge replacements and other projects expected to cost a total of $4.3 million.

Monday: Douglas County commissioners discuss proposed capital improvements plan, 9 a.m., County Courthouse, 11th and Massachusetts streets.Wednesday: Lawrence and Douglas County commissioners meet with Sally Howard, chief counsel for the Kansas Department of Transportation, to discuss planned highway projects and other issues in and around Lawrence, 7:30 a.m. at City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets.

The plan is intended to help officials prepare for the future, and 31st Street isn’t the only area that promises to be among the corridors that will demand attention in the coming years.

Eudora proposals

Another hot spot is Eudora, where the proposed capital improvement plan includes four projects:

  • Spend $190,000 next year to help repave and install drainage pipes along Main Street, from 10th Street north to the railroad tracks. Members of the Eudora City Council are scheduled to meet Monday to consider options for covering the city’s anticipated share of project costs, which Browning estimates to be $465,000.
  • Set aside $852,575 to cover half the cost of rebuilding County Road 1061 — also known as Church Street — from Kansas Highway 10 to 12th Street. The city of Eudora also would help finance the project, which would be slated for 2006.
  • Reserve $1.43 million to cover half the cost of rebuilding Church Street south of K-10, to North 1200 Road. Eudora would be expected to cover the other half of costs, with the project anticipated for construction in 2007.
  • Anticipate spending $681,027 to reconfigure the Church Street interchange with K-10, to ease traffic flow. The project — proposed as a cost-sharing arrangement with the city and Kansas Department of Transportation — would be set for construction in 2008.

The proposed plan also calls for projects in and leading to Baldwin, at the edge of Lecompton and along the Farmer’s Turnpike at the northwestern limits of Lawrence.

Monday’s meeting is set for 9 a.m. at the Douglas County Courthouse, 11th and Massachusetts streets.