The key south Lawrence intersection of 31st and Louisiana streets is likely to be closed into mid-summer as part of the effort to construct the $137 million South Lawrence Trafficway project.

The area engineer for the Kansas Department of Transportation told city, county and school board officials Tuesday the intersection will remain completely closed until about mid-summer. At that point, motorists will be able to travel west of Louisiana Street on 31st Street but still won’t be able to travel east of Louisiana Street on 31st Street.

“We’re trying desperately to get the work done as quickly as we can,” Steve Baalman, area engineer for KDOT, told local officials at a joint meeting Tuesday afternoon.

Much of 31st Street east of Ousdahl Drive has been shut down since the summer of 2014 as construction crews realign roads that run through the Baker Wetlands as part of the SLT project.

Baalman told local officials the project is on schedule, but the work in the Baker Wetlands area is time consuming because it is particularly complicated. It has required significant preparation of the soil, rerouting of stream channels, preliminary work for bridges and several other pieces of work that have had to be done before the actual roadwork could be completed.

Members of the public have been questioning when the road will be open to the public, because parts of the road do look largely complete. But Baalman said there are still small pieces of the road that can’t be completed until other work in the area is undertaken.

“If there was a way for us to get it open earlier, we absolutely would have done it,” Baalman said.

The entire eastern leg of the SLT is expected to be open by fall of 2016. Baalman said the portion of 31st Street west of Louisiana Street is expected to open prior to the fall of 2016, but he said it was difficult to project a date at this point.

“In terms of schedule, we’re definitely on schedule,” Baalman said of the project, which is being constructed by Columbia, Mo.-based Emery Sapp & Sons. “The contractor has been fantastic. They’re very aggressive, motivated and creative.”

KDOT officials also briefed local officials on planning work that is underway to expand the existing western leg of the SLT — the portion west of Iowa Street — into a four-lane road. It currently is a two-lane road, but the eastern leg that is under construction will be a four-lane road.

The western portion of the SLT was constructed on right-of-way large enough to accommodate four lanes, but engineers said there likely will have to be additional modifications to the existing road to make the expansion feasible.

Jonathan Marburger, the KDOT design manager for the western section of the SLT, said figuring out where interchanges should be located on the western section of the road will be an important part of the study currently underway. He said a goal of the project is to eliminate the at-grade intersections at Kasold Drive and Wakarusa Drive/27th Street. Both intersections have created safety concerns.

Marburger said he thought it was unlikely KDOT would recommend an interchange for the Kasold Drive location but instead may consider an overpass for the area. He said the Wakarusa Drive/27th Street intersection, which currently leads into baseball, soccer fields and other recreational facilities operated by the city, has several design options.

KDOT plans to hold an open house in late March or early April to begin presenting some design concepts for public comment. The entire study is expected to last until mid 2016, at which point KDOT hopes to have an agreed-upon concept design for the project. Funding to build the project, or even do final design for the project, currently isn’t in the state’s budget, and it is uncertain when such funding could become available, Marburger said.