photo by: City of Lawrence

A City of Lawrence map shows the construction area for a street and infrastructure project on East 23rd Street.

The City of Lawrence announced Wednesday that the long-running construction project taking place along a portion of East 23rd Street will wrap up in about two weeks.

As the Journal-World reported, the 18-month project has been completely reconstructing East 23rd Street from the Haskell Bridge to about 600 feet east of Anderson Road. The project entered its second phase in April. At that time, the city anticipated the project would finish by its original completion date of December, and that held true. The city, in a social media post, said all lanes of traffic along the road should be open by Friday, Dec. 15.

All told, the result of that work is significant; the city’s announcement notes that the construction includes more than 41,500 square yards of new concrete pavement, more than 3 miles of new curbs and gutters, more than 11,000 square yards of shared-use paths, six new Lawrence Transit bus stops and more than 150 new trees. It also includes an added signal for pedestrian crossings at Ponderosa Drive and the replacement of three water mains.

Work on the $15.36 million project began in June 2022 and has limited traffic to one lane in each direction throughout. As the Journal-World reported, the cost of the project will be shared with the Kansas Department of Transportation.