New traffic plan for sand facility proposed / LJWorld.com

Archive for Saturday, November 7, 2009

November 7, 2009

A Manhattan-based company seeking to build a sand-dredging operation on part of 310 acres north of Lawrence has changed plans for how trucks would access the site.

Instead of turning off U.S. Highway 24-59 near the Midland Junction, trucks would leave the highway farther south, at North 1800 Road, which is Teepee Junction.

“The former proposal got trucks to the highway quicker. This revised proposal gets trucks to the highway in the most often utilized direction of traffic,” said Tim Herndon, an architect for Landplan Engineering, who represents Midwest Concrete Materials on the project.

Midwest Concrete Materials is seeking approval of a conditional-use permit to build a plant to extract sand for construction materials on land it owns northwest of the intersection of East 1400 Road and North 1900 Road.

Neighbors at a public informational meeting in September expressed concerns, including added truck traffic and the loss of agricultural land.

“I’m an advocate for protecting prime farmland, and this would be mining prime farmland,” said Jerry Jost, who lives north of Lawrence.

The company had a revised traffic impact study in October examine the effect of moving the access point to the south and having trucks turn off the highway at Teepee Junction — the intersection of U.S. Highway 24-40 and U.S. Highway 24-59 — instead of near the Midland Junction.

Herndon said the change is a result of working with county and Kansas Department of Transportation staff members on access to the proposed plant.

The study also indicates that a vast majority of customers who would need sand from the facility are to the south and east, meaning more trucks would be traveling to and from Teepee Junction anyway.

The proposed route would mean:

• Trucks would turn west onto North 1800 Road at the junction. The traffic study also says there is ample space between the highway and the railroad tracks when trains move through.

• Trucks would follow North 1800 Road until it turns into East 1400 Road.

• At the intersection of East 1400 Road and North 1900 Road, trucks would turn left, and eventually move into the plant site north of the road. Plans also call for the Midwest Concrete Materials to fund paving of the intersection.

Signs would also be placed to keep trucks from traveling north or east away from the intersection.

The project group hopes the planning commission will have the proposal on its agenda in December. The Douglas County Commission would consider the conditional-use permit later in the process.

Discussion

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7 November 2009
at 6:32 a.m.

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dudedog12 (Anonymous) says…

otherwise you can paint a hog green, it's stil a hog.
7 November 2009
at 7:06 a.m.

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riverat (Joe Hyde) says…

Roughly 100 individual trains pass over that rail crossing each 24-hour period. Many of the eastbound trains especially will slow to a crawl speed and then stop as the front of the train enters Lawrence, in the process leaving the cars at the tail end of the train blocking that crossing for upwards of a half hour, sometimes longer.
7 November 2009
at 7:35 a.m.

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smitty (Anonymous) says…

Quite often we see major vehicle accidents between
TeePee Junction and Midland corner on 24-59. The truck traffic would clearly increase the risk of accidents, probably fatal accidents if we actually pay attention to reality. A fact that is clearly not mentioned in this analysis.

But signs will be posted as if those truckers are required to follow the signs……riiiiight?

Reading the news is not a fair game for the non-thinkers. One must learn how to read between the lines.
7 November 2009
at 7:44 a.m.

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barrypenders (Anonymous) says…

I saw some “wetlands” on either side of the gravel road east of the RR tracks.

Stimulus and evolution lives

Darwin bless you all
7 November 2009
at 8:13 a.m.

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merrill (Anonymous) says…

This company is not a good neighbor. These people have recent bad history with the Environmental Protection Agency and have been fined accordingly.

Lawrence taxpayers CANNOT afford new toxic contributors. We're being taken for a ride with the farmland deal.

Not only that prime farm land is worth more money than ever. Why? Because the west coast is losing access to the Colorado River water. Consequently produce production is being impacted.

Price Chopper/Hen House people are looking for more local produce for their stores. The west coast can no longer meet their demands. They are in the market for a variety of produce. 3 weeks ago their buyer was in our area buying apples.

Ball Foods and Cosentino's both own price chopper stores and both groups are buying more local food products.

Yes Price Chopper have been “Buying Local” more and more. They purchase close to 1000 lbs of Tofu from Central Soy Tofu each month. The organic so beans need a place to grow that is NOT contaminated. Central Soy is selling 3000-4000 lbs of organic tofu a week. Closer sources of organic soybeans would be welcome I'm sure.
As it is Central Soy buys from Missouri-Kansas farmers in order to meet demand.

Free State Brewery recently revealed they spend $250,000 on local food products. Several food service business people are buying more local products. The market is growing. Rainbow Organics is also a large buying group for a wide variety of local food products.

Prime farmland is increasing in value as a local business.
10 December 2009
at 8:28 p.m.

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tongie1 (Anonymous) says…

Yes, 1000 pounds of “Tofu” are more important than the added jobs that the new buisness will produce! Lawrence has a long history of squashing any attempts by a company trying to locate in or around the city and produce jobs for the area. If you produce a winning collegiate football team, you can decimate a stand of 100 year old trees and no one blinks an eye! Ask American Eagle about the attempt they made at putting an operation in the industrial park area! Now Ottawa reaps the benefit of having an “outstanding” employer in their community! Wetlands… there is another job producing entity. Why don't you go ask the people that are in your area what they would rather have, more wetlands, or more jobs!
If I am not mistaken, the aftermath of the sand operation would be a nice area lake for the community, maybe that would change the clientel of that area, because we all know what goes on over the levee now! I would bet you marbles to chalk, the truckers would not put up with that type of behavior! I thought America was the land of opportunity and capitalism. If Lawrence continues to deny new buisness, then it will forever remain the bedroom community that it is destined to be. Let's put people back to work… just not in my back yard, is that what you are saying!? That seems to be the order of the day for Lawrence and Douglas County.