This graphic provided by the Kansas Department of Transportation shows the recommended right-in, right-out configuration for the intersection at Kasold Drive and Kansas Highway 10.

Although the cost of a solution raised eyebrows, the Douglas County Commission directed county staff to work with the city of Lawrence and the Kansas Department of Transportation to find a way to provide access across Kansas Highway 10 at a soon-to-be-changed intersection.

The staff direction came after commissioners acknowledged receiving a letter from the Lawrence-Douglas County Bicycle Advisory Committee. The letter expressed concern that bicyclists would lose the ability to cross K-10 at its intersection with Kasold Drive and East 1200 Road when the intersection is converted to a right-on, right-off configuration. That work is to be completed this fall in conjunction with the opening of the South Lawrence Trafficway.

The letter asks the county to work together with the city and KDOT to provide access at the intersection. The Lawrence City Commission received the letter Tuesday night and directed its staff to work with the county and KDOT on the issue.

County Public Works Director Keith Browning said KDOT had an engineering consulting firm take a preliminary look at providing access through the use of a bike path under the Yankee Tank Creek bridge, about a quarter mile east of the intersection. His “very basic” projection was that the half-mile long bike path would cost $300,000. That was the cost of a 10-foot wide asphalt path. Concrete might be a better, if more expensive, solution because of the threat of flooding near the creek, he said.

KDOT has indicated that the cost of the bike path should be a “shared local project,” meaning the city and county should pay for it, Browning said.

However, Bicycle Advisory Committee member David Hamby noted KDOT proposes spending $70,000 to alter the Kasold Drive intersection to right-in, right-out after first sharing plans for that configuration costing from $1.2 million to $1.5 million. With those savings, it might have money to help with the bike path, he said.

Browning agreed that was a possibility and suggested that KDOT also could be asked to have its consultant do additional design work on the project.

County commissioners took the same action as the city, instructing staff to work with the city and KDOT on a solution but not approving any money for the project. Commission Chairman Jim Flory said that was all the commission could do at present.

“Three-hundred thousand dollars for bicycle access across there to get to (County Road) 458, where many of my constituents don’t like bicycles anyway, I’m certainly not willing to commit to that at this point,” he said, noting CR 458 would be a safer bicycle route after upgrades on the road next year install paved shoulders on a five-mile section of the road. “I’d like to see what KDOT would do.”

Commissioner Nancy Thellman said as the county, city and KDOT worked on the project, foundations might be approached to help with the bicycle path.

“Anytime we consider a road project, we need to consider cyclists,” she said.