This time it won’t just be another study.

This time, state road officials pledge, there will be changes on a dangerous stretch of Kansas Highway 10, site of 14 accidents last year.

“It’s just a completely unsafe intersection and I think that every morning everybody kind of gasps coming across,” said Kirsten Krug, people department manager at Amarr Garage Door. “There just has to be a solution.”

KDOT officials, reacting to the outcry and concern about Kansas Highway 10 between East 1650 and East 1750 roads, met Tuesday morning with worried local leaders and representatives of businesses located in the East Hills Business Park, including Amarr Garage Door, 3800 Greenway Circle.

In the past KDOT has said the road was meeting design expectations and that posted speeds were as they should be for safest results.

But Tuesday, KDOT agreed the concerns were real and said it would act on recommendations from a new committee that will include representatives from businesses and local government and property owners.

“The main goal of the committee is to find solutions that will improve the overall safety,” said KDOT district engineer Jerry Younger.

The committee, which will include 20 to 30 people, will begin meeting at the end of this month and should have viable options for improving the safety along Kansas Highway 10 by the end of August, he said.

A Life Net helicopter airlifts an auto accident victim from the scene of a multiple injury accident at the entrance to the East Hills Business Park on Kansas Highway10 in this August 18, 2001, file photo. KDOT officials met Tuesday with local leaders and representatives from the business park and agreed to act on recommendations from a committee that will be formed to find viable options for improving safety along K-10.

Lawrence City Administrator Mike Wildgen emphasized at the meeting the importance of setting a schedule for the committee so as not to delay a solution.

“The southeast area is in a state of flux,” he said. “We can’t wait.”

The decision by KDOT to review the intersection came after another injury accident at the site in late April, said department spokesman Joe Blubaugh. Initially, KDOT officials intended to leave the intersection as is.

“But we had some communication with local businesses and we determined we should revisit this matter,” Blubaugh said.

KDOT also is working to better involve groups that may be affected by the agency’s decisions, he said.

In the past, KDOT officials would conduct traffic studies and base decisions on their findings with little heed to public reaction. But things have changed since KDOT last studied that portion of Kansas Highway 10 in 2001.

“I think people who live and work here know there’s been a lot of change,” Younger said.

Anywhere from 15,000 to 20,000 vehicles travel along the highway daily, he said. That’s only likely to increase with time, making it imperative to find solutions for making the road safer, Younger said.

Two injury accidents have taken place this year at the intersection of K-10 and East Hills Road. Last year, there were a combined 14 accidents along Kansas Highway 10 at the intersections of East Hills, East 1650 and East 1750 roads. In six of those accidents people were injured.

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At Tuesday’s meeting, some people suggested putting in a traffic light or changing the speed limits for the area. Those suggestions will be considered by the committee, which will be put together by KDOT with assistance of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce.

Heather Ackerly, of the chamber, said officials already had a good sense of who they wanted to participate, and hoped to have the list of committee members completed by next week.

Douglas County Engineer Keith Browning suggested finding some visual cue to let drivers know they were leaving a freeway and entering a town.

“People need to get the sense that they should slow down,” he said. “We need a visual sort of change maybe with the landscape or something.”