A Lawrence attorney – thus far unsuccessfully – is seeking to get Lawrence and Douglas County commissioners to enter the fight over a proposed turnpike interchange near Tonganoxie.

Attorney Price Banks has lobbied city commissioners to begin urging the Kansas Turnpike Authority to abandon plans for a new turnpike interchange about eight miles east and north of Lawrence, where the turnpike intersects with Leavenworth County Road 1.

“I think we’ve really been asleep at the switch on this issue,” said Banks, who believes the interchange would be too far away to effectively serve Lawrence traffic. “I can’t figure out why more people here aren’t paying attention to this.”

He said Lawrence and Douglas County leaders should start urging the turnpike authority to scrap the already-approved Tonganoxie plans and instead work on building an interchange just east of the Lawrence Municipal Airport. The new interchange would be a terminus for a long talked about eastern bypass – along Noria Road – that would connect the turnpike with Kansas Highway 10.

Banks is representing about 20 landowners near the proposed interchange site in Tonganoxie who believe the project drastically will change the predominately rural character of the area.

A Leavenworth County leader said Lawrence and Douglas County need to stay out of the project. Leavenworth County Commissioner Dean Oroke said Douglas County has had plenty of chances to build road projects – such as the South Lawrence Trafficway – and has proven that it has problems finishing projects.

“They had the opportunity in 2005, or prior to that, to become involved with the project when it was being discussed,” Oroke said of the interchange, which is now in the design phase. “The problem is that we in Leavenworth County did in six months what the city of Lawrence has been fighting for 20 years to get done. Here in Leavenworth County we are not going to sit around and fight with each other for 20 years.”

Thus far, Lawrence and Douglas County commissioners aren’t willing to jump into the fray. Douglas County Commissioner Bob Johnson disagreed that the Tonganoxie interchange wouldn’t help Douglas County. He said it could benefit Lawrence, and particularly Eudora, if a new, expensive cross-country road is built to connect the interchange with Kansas Highway 10 at some point west of Eudora.

Johnson said he believed Banks was simply trying to enlist Douglas County to help to boost the efforts of the Tonganoxie residents who oppose the project.

“I don’t want to be a part of that,” Johnson said. “And I think it would be a waste of time to try to undue what KTA has already determined after studying it for a pretty long time.”

Lawrence City Commissioner David Schauner, who in 2005 lobbied for Lawrence to become more active in the issue, said he now thinks it would be difficult to convince KTA to change the project.

“I think they’re pretty entrenched,” Schauner said of the KTA.

Former Lawrence Mayor Bob Schumm – a longtime supporter of an eastern bypass – has joined Banks in urging the city to get involved. Both he and Banks said an eastern bypass near Noria Road would greatly benefit the development of the East Hills Business Park and the vacant Farmland Industries plant.

Banks also said the Tonganoxie interchange likely would put new pressures on the Lawrence retail and job markets because it is expected that the area around the interchange will become a new commercial center.

Johnson did agree with that assessment, but he said Lawrence should spend its time preparing to compete rather than spending time trying to stop the project.

“It has the potential to create more competition,” Johnson said. “We’re going to have to work hard to make sure it doesn’t become a determent to us because the pace of the game certainly will quicken.”