A rendering of a proposed XPressWellness Urgent Care center at Sixth and Folks Road. Photo Courtesy of XPress Wellness Urgent Care

It won’t be a full-fledged emergency room, but a deal has been struck to bring a major new medical provider to West Lawrence. Oklahoma-based XpressWellness Urgent Care has signed a deal to build at Sixth and Folks Road.

Plans call for a nearly 4,300-square-foot building at the northwest corner of the intersection. The property is in front of the Meadowlark Estates retirement community, and is in the growing Bauer Farms development.

XpressWellness, which operates eight centers in Oklahoma, provides walk-in care for a variety conditions that people sometimes turn to an emergency room for. Those include minor fractures, flu symptoms, ear infections, upper respiratory infections, bite or puncture wounds and some work-related injuries. Urgent care centers have become a significant trend in the health care industry as emergency rooms and traditional doctors offices have become busier.

“We try to make the wait as short as possible,” said Don Rose, an executive with HammerWilliams Co., which is part of the team developing the wellness centers. “We’re seeing Kansas has not quite caught up to the urgent care trend like several other states have. We see several possibilities in Kansas.”

The Lawrence location will be the company’s first in Kansas, but Rose said it is exploring sites in three other Kansas cities.

The center will be open seven days a week. According to information on its website, normal hours of operation are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1-7 p.m. on Sunday. Appointments aren’t required, although the centers offer an online check-in service that allows you to reserve your space in line and be notified a few minutes before a medical professional is ready to see you.

Rose said each center is overseen by a medical doctor, and the facilities also use nurse practitioners and other licensed medical professionals to provide care.

As for a timeline, expect construction to begin this summer. The zoning for the site is largely in place, but the project does still need some approvals from the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission. The project is expected to have a hearing in May, and construction would begin thereafter.

The project continues a trend of new medical facilities in the northwest part of the city. As we reported last week, Topeka ENT has signed a deal to open an ear, nose and throat practice at the southwest corner of Sixth and Folks Road. We’ve also previously reported that Lawrence physician Stephanie Suber has opened Family Centered Medicine in a new building just east of the Wal-Mart near Sixth and Wakarusa.

I’m also keeping my eye out for at least one other health care-related development near the Sixth and Folks Road intersection. A vacant piece of ground just east of the Central Bank of the Midwest branch there has sold. I’m hearing word of a specialty dentist office, but I haven’t yet seen plans filed. I’ll check in with the players and report back.

“We definitely think it is a great corner for the business,” Rose said. “And we’re planning on making this our showcase facility. It will be the nicest clinic we have built to date.”

Here’s a look at the proposed design for the corner.

In other news and notes from around town:

• While we’re talking about west side development, the granddaddy of West Lawrence projects could be an expansion of the South Lawrence Trafficway. As we’ve previously reported, the Kansas Department of Transportation is working on a concept plan to expand the existing SLT to four lanes west of Iowa Street. The portion of the SLT east of Iowa Street that is currently under construction will be four lanes when it opens in 2016.

KDOT doesn’t have money to build the four lanes west of Iowa, but it has identified the expansion as a definite need, and it hopes to have a plan in place to take advantage of any funding that becomes available in future years.

With that in mind, KDOT is seeking comments from the public. KDOT will host an open house from 5-7 p.m. March 31 at Southwest Middle School, 2511 Inverness Drive. The open house is a come-and-go type of affair where people can see a few displays about the concept plan and ask questions of KDOT officials.

• Pedestrians shouldn’t feel left out of the fun, though. In the business world, I hear the phrase frequently that “people vote with their feet.” I don’t know about that. I got a nasty paper cut on my big toe during the primary, so I don’t advise it. Regardless, local officials want pedestrians to vote, sort of, on a variety of issues.

Officials with the Lawrence-Douglas County planning office are urging pedestrians to take an online survey as leaders work to develop a Regional Pedestrian Plan. You can find a link to the survey here. The deadline to participate in the survey is April 25. I just took the survey, and it takes about 10 minutes. It asks you a variety of questions about what type of sidewalk improvements, crosswalk improvements and other such issues are important to you. (Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really need to use some Lysol wipes on my computer keyboard.)

One last thing though. If you really like to talk about pedestrian issues, there is a Safe Routes for All Town Hall Forum scheduled from 6:30-9:30 p.m. Wednesday at Liberty Hall in downtown Lawrence.