photo by: Nick Krug

Traffic on Bob Billings Parkway meanders through a line of cones set out as it proceeds toward the intersection of Bob Billings and Kasold Drive. Reconstruction of Bob Billings to Bob White Drive is currently underway and scheduled to be completed in September.

Back in November, the president of the Quail Pointe at Alvamar neighborhood group explained to Lawrence city commissioners the trouble that older residents had turning left onto Bob Billings Parkway.

Warren Corman, also retired as Kansas University’s architect, said it had been “a real problem.”

“The hill comes in from both ways, and if people are driving 40 mph, we have about four seconds before they come over the hill and we see them,” he said.

Corman told commissioners the situation would be helped by a traffic signal at Stone Meadows Drive and Bob Billings Parkway — a project that’s now part of a larger package of improvements on Bob Billings Parkway starting this week.

“In the mornings at peak hours, it’s hard for people to get onto the street because of traffic,” said Zach Baker, engineer for the Bob Billings Parkway project. “So, at least now with a traffic signal they will have a protected phase to get onto the road. It will definitely slow up traffic along there.”

Cones, barriers and signs went up along Bob Billings Parkway on Monday and Tuesday, funneling traffic into one lane in each direction near Kasold Drive.

The road project along Bob Billings Parkway, a total of $2.2 million in improvements, will start Wednesday with the creation of a right-turn lane at Kasold. Baker said work on the south side of the intersection would start first, followed by the north side a couple of weeks later.

The work will continue east from Kasold, with a mill and overlay project from Kasold to Wakarusa and then a restriping from Kasold to Crossgate Drive to create a center turn lane.

Cars will be moved to different lanes during this time, but Bob Billings Parkway will never be closed to traffic during the months of construction, Baker said.

“East and west traffic through the corridor will always be open to traffic,” Baker said. “Sometimes it will be more constricted, but for a lot of it, it will be open most of the way. The biggest hindrance will be right here at the beginning, near Kasold.”

Moving farther west, the street from Foxfire to Bobwhite will undergo a mill and overlay this summer, too.

All of that work is estimated to be complete by the time school starts in August.

“We’re doing all the roadway stuff first because that has the most impact for traffic,” Baker said. “If we can get the pavement redone and striped and pretty before school starts, that’s what we’re going to do.”

Traffic signals will be installed near the end of the project, in September.

Besides at Stone Meadows Drive, traffic signals will be installed along Bob Billings Parkway at Inverness Drive and Bobwhite Drive.

Inverness Drive will be closed to traffic for about a month when workers create a right-turn lane to prepare for the installation of the traffic signal, Baker said. Stone Meadows Drive will also be closed to through-traffic to put in a right-turn lane.

Workers will also improve sight distance at the intersection of St. Andrews Drive. And they are planning to fill in a sidewalk gap along the south side of Bob Billings Parkway from Monterey Way to Inverness Drive.

“Now, from K-10 to the KU campus, you can walk on a sidewalk either side of the street,” Baker said.

The list of improvements was created last year, after public works officials met with residents along Bob Billings Parkway. The four-lane road sees 6,500 to 15,500 vehicles per day, it was estimated at the time. That number was expected to increase with the opening of the Bob Billings Parkway interchange off K-10.

Baker said he didn’t have updated traffic counts since the interchange opened in December, but that the “true test” would be when the South Lawrence Trafficway opens this fall — which is expected to push more drivers along K-10 who may exit onto Bob Billings.

Residents first met with city leaders in 2014 about the need to control speed and access along the corridor. In 2015, $2.25 million was allotted for the project, and about 200 residents gave their input in April 2015 on what the project should include.

Many of those who attended the meetings asked for pavement to be maintained, and for improvements at Stone Meadows Drive, Inverness Drive and Bobwhite Drive.

Because of a lack of right-of-way at the intersections, the city recommended traffic signals rather than roundabouts, which was also an option.

“Through the whole process, we’ve been planning what people are wanting,” Baker said. “We’ve had a lot of feedback. That’s why we chose what we chose.”