Eastbound and westbound traffic on 23rd Street — between Haskell Avenue and Barker Avenue — has been shifted onto a new bridge.
During construction of the bridge, 23rd Street traffic had been moved onto shoofly detours.
Two westbound lanes and one eastbound lane will be open on the bridge. Crews soon will begin to remove the shooflies and complete work on frontage roads on each side of the bridge.
Updated traffic information for the bridge replacement project is available at http://www.ksdot.org/topekametro/laneclose.asp.
Comments
blindrabbit 7 months ago
Good, completed in record time. Too bad SLT has not been completed to provide relief for this bridge. My guess, traffic flow on east 23rd. will not be affected much by the bridge however.
gccs14r 7 months ago
Traffic flow on 23rd won't be affected by completion of the SLT, either.
AirForce12 7 months ago
not true. Everyone who lives in the right side of town, west lawrence, will be using the SLT vs the 23rd st route.
fithawk 7 months ago
Did you really just call west Lawrence "the right side of town?" I didn't know people were still doing that.
AirForce12 7 months ago
It was a joke... laugh a little boss. However we all know the west side the is the best side!
chzypoof1 7 months ago
Good try.
Jake Esau 7 months ago
As one of the many who drives on 23rd at least 4 times a week that would use the SLT instead if it were available, it will reduce traffic.
gccs14r 7 months ago
With only one lane each direction (you think they're going to build all four lanes at once?), you'll all be stuck driving as slowly as the slowest person on the road. And the majority of you will have to backtrack to get to the bypass, adding even more distance and more time spent on a 2-lane road. I think trying to use it during rush hour will easily double your time to cross Lawrence vs using 23rd street.
Jake Esau 7 months ago
If I remember correctly, the new section will be 4 lanes (K-10 to Iowa). And 50mph with only one stoplight after that is better than 30mph with a ton of stoplights. And 90% of the time, you'll be going at least relatively close to the speed limit.
kuguardgrl13 7 months ago
Doubt they will do one lane at a time. Sounds like they want to start building at the edge of the Baker Wetlands and work their way across, bringing the equipment in behind them to reduce the environmental impact and drain the wetlands where they need to be drained.
traveler12 7 months ago
This is a significant step forward for infrastructure & transportation in Lawrence. So happy to hear about this. Thank you to the City and the contractors/construction crew for your work. Now, it's time to finish the SLT and get that project over & done with.
Take_a_letter_Maria 7 months ago
Someone tell me again why we built a new bridge instead of building the road at grade. I understand why there used to be a need for a bridge, but without railroad tracks any longer I don't see the need.
Will Babbit 7 months ago
The reason given was the walking path that replaced the railroad tracks.
average 7 months ago
There is an actual physical dip there. Walk/bike from Learnard down to the old railbed and you'll see that the land does drop there. The alternatives were to have 23rd follow the dip down (generally not preferred by road engineers), build up an embankment, or replace the bridge. The embankment would have been somewhat cheaper than a replacement bridge, but was harder to do without shutting down 23rd entirely for a few months (something unacceptable to all parties).
DillonBarnes 6 months, 4 weeks ago
Not to mention the walking/biking trail that passes through there. Even if they had just built up an embankment, the path would have to be built up to reach the road, then what do you do? Put a pedestrian crossing in the middle of the road? Build up a pedestrian bridge? Not really an ideal option either way.
average 6 months, 4 weeks ago
The embankment would likely have been high enough for a 10-foot box culvert (tunnel), much like the SLT pedestrian trail takes currently when it passes under 6th Street out west.
Take_a_letter_Maria 6 months, 4 weeks ago
Thank you for the response. I was not aware of the drop in that location. That makes sense to me now.
consumer1 6 months, 4 weeks ago
NOt only the above mentioned reason, but also to allow heavey equipment from the Dg co shop to circumvent the bridge.
SloMo 7 months ago
Hey. LJW, would you please report the status of the exercise path between 19th street and the Haskell campus? Is it open now, too? I use that for my (bicycle) commute.
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