5 county bridges up for replacement in next 5 years

Five Douglas County bridges are slated to be replaced in the next five years, according to a construction schedule the Kansas Department of Transportation released Thursday.

KDOT announced $401.6 million worth of new projects it will fund under the T-WORKS transportation program. The 56 projects on the list are aimed at preserving the state’s roads, with the majority aimed at replacing bridges.

In 2012, a bridge on 23rd Street near the Haskell Rail Trail and Learnard Avenue is set to be replaced. The project is expected to cost $4 million.

Also in 2012, KDOT plans to spend $700,000 to replace a bridge on U.S. Highway 59 over the Wakarusa River just south of Lawrence.

In 2013, a bridge on U.S Highway 56 that spans Tauy Creek in Baldwin is scheduled to be replaced. That project is estimated to cost $1.5 million.

During the same year, $2.3 million will go toward replacing two other bridges over the Tauy Creek drainage area just west of Baldwin.

All the projects will be funded under the $450 million the Kansas Legislature agreed to set aside each year for funding road work.

“There will be a lot more to come over the next few years,” KDOT spokesman Steve Swartz said.

The five-year construction schedule also earmarked $38.7 million for surfacing 11.5 miles of new road on U.S. Highway 59. That funding allocation had been announced and on the construction schedule long before Thursday.

In 2011, $18.7 million will be spent to surface a seven-mile stretch of the new four-lane freeway north of the Franklin-Douglas County line.

And in 2012, $20 million has been set aside to pave the next four miles of U.S. Highway 59.