photo by: Bremen Keasey

Lawrence City Commissioners approved updated funding agreements on how to disperse federal funds through the Kansas Department of Transportation for bike and pedestrian road projects.

Lawrence city commissioners voted Tuesday to approve updated agreements between the city and Kansas Department of Transportation for federal funds for a road redesign of Massachusetts Street and other sidewalk projects.

The commissioners approved — as part of their consent agenda, which is approved with a single vote — new agreements between the city and KDOT to disburse federal grant funding won by the city in 2024. The city was awarded $2,376,000 in federal funds in October 2024 and a further $1 million in Carbon Reduction Program Funds in November 2024 for improving multimodal transportation, such as bike transportation, along Massachusetts Street.

The city approved similar agreements to disburse the money in April 2025, as the Journal-World reported, but Jacob Baldwin, an engineering program manager with the city’s Municipal Services and Operations department, told the Journal-World those agreements were “never executed” because of a minor issue with the language.

Those April agreements included language which would have had those projects be “let and administered” by KDOT instead of the city — an option that neither the city nor KDOT prefers. Baldwin said the agreements approved Tuesday are the same except for including language that allows the city to award and administer the construction contracts.

Although the new agreements come months after the initial approval, the city does not anticipate a change in the timeline for completing either of the projects the agreements fund. The project to redesign Massachusetts Street between 14th and 23rd Streets by shrinking space for cars from four to three lanes and adding protected bike lanes was approved unanimously by the commission in December 2024, as the Journal-World reported.

A final design is expected to be considered by the commission later in 2025. Construction for the project is expected to begin in 2026.

The commission did not have any regular agenda items during this meeting.