photo by: Bremen Keasey/Journal-World

The intersection of Tennessee Street and Eight Street in Lawrence shown on Jan. 31. City commissioners will potentially approve a $17 million bid as part of a watershed upgrade that could happen around that neighborhood.

City leaders will soon consider awarding a construction bid of over $17 million as part of a stormwater project around Old West Lawrence that will also partially redesign the Ninth Street corridor.

At its meeting on Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission will consider awarding a $17,338,472 bid to Kissick Construction Co. for work on the Jayhawk Watershed Middle Reach Project — part of a potentially $32 million list of stormwater upgrades to the watershed that includes four projects near the University of Kansas campus.

This project will replace a stone culvert with a reinforced concrete box from just north of Eighth and Tennessee streets to the intersection of Ninth and Indiana streets. The project will run through the Old West Lawrence neighborhood and along Ninth Street between Louisiana and Indiana streets.

The installation of the replacement stormwater tunnel, which will be approximately 20 feet deep, will “significantly impact the neighborhood,” according to a memo from the city’s Municipal Services and Operations department. Because of this, the city combined the stormwater project with improvements to other infrastructure, such as water mains, sanitary sewers and street maintenance, to “maximize efficiency.”

Another feature of the project will be an eventual redesign of a portion of Ninth Street. Last October, commissioners voted 4-1 to approve a “road diet” on Ninth from Illinois Street to Vermont Street, as the Journal-World reported.

The redesign will reduce the total number of lanes for vehicles from four to three — making one lane of traffic going westbound, one lane going eastbound and a turning lane in the middle — and add bike lanes on each side until Kentucky Street. Portions of the bike lane will be separated from cars with physical “zebra” dividers.

Nick Hoyt, Lawrence’s lead program manager on this project, told the Journal-World in an email that construction in the Old West Lawrence neighborhood was expected to start this spring and last through most of 2025, and he shared a map that outlines where and when portions of the project would take place. The construction on Ninth Street, including the road redesign, would happen in 2026.

photo by: City of Lawrence

A map depicting the aspects of the Jayhawk Watershed Project with a projected timeline of when phases of the project will start.

The funds for the project were included in the Municipal Services and Operations department 2025 budget and the city’s 2025-2029 Capital Improvement Plan. The item is currently listed under the city’s consent agenda, a group of items that can be passed all at once on a single vote unless a commissioner decides to remove an item.

In other business, city commissioners will provide feedback based on a presentation of the current scope of the North Lawrence Comprehensive Corridor Study.

The study, which was first presented to the Connected City Advisory Board in early January as the Journal-World reported, aims to enhance North Second Street as a key gateway and evaluate future economic development possibilities in North Lawrence.

The city is currently seeking applications from consulting firms to prepare economic feasibility services, market analysis and implementation plans that also integrate “existing infrastructure plans and land use plans.” The city has set aside $675,000 over the next two years for the study, and staff hopes a contract will be signed by the City Commission later in the year.

The study will lead to the creation of a North Lawrence Comprehensive Corridor Plan, which the city said will include an “extensive community engagement process” to create, according to a city memo. The study may also be used for funding efforts or to potentially implement various economic development tools like the creation of a special tax district for redevelopment activities.

The corridor study would explore future not just potential economic development plans, but also study improvements at the Union Pacific underpass and at-grade railroad crossings in North Lawrence, consider options to add more multimodal transportation and make North Second Street safer, evaluate how the wide variety of critical infrastructure could be upgraded and study future bridge alignments over the Kansas River.