To the editor:

In a Journal-World article dated Feb. 23, the proposed road projects that the city of Lawrence will undertake during the summer of 2015 were presented. Quite dismaying is the absence of any construction on the stretch of Bob Billings between Kasold and Wakarusa, since, as stated in an Journal-World article by Chad Lawhorn from Aug.  4, “major building projects included in the city’s 2015 budget: $2.2 Million to rebuild Bob Billings Parkway between Kasold and Wakarusa.”

That budget item was not to put a traffic light in at Bob Billings and George Williams Way, nor was it to rebuild Bob Billings between Wakarusa and Foxfire Drive (a desperately needed project that has been planned and canceled each of the past 3 years). That budget item was specifically to rebuild a rapidly deteriorating section of road with foundational issues that will handle an anticipated 300 percent traffic increase as soon as November, when the Bob Billings and the South Lawrence Trafficway interchange is completed.

Comments from residents along the road shouldn’t be happening this summer; they should be happening now, with construction happening this summer. If this project is delayed until 2016 or later, what is projected to be a convenient western entrance to the city and KU’s campus will inevitably become an accident-prone, pothole-ridden perpetual construction zone that will frustrate residents and visitors for years to come. It makes absolutely no sense to wait until the increase in traffic has happened before beginning construction on this stretch of road and will only increase the danger to construction worker and drivers alike.