photo by: Screenshot/City of Lawrence

The red line shows what the storm sewer route was believed to be at the start of the Tennessee Street construction. The green line that passes under the Outdoor Aquatic Center is its actual route, which was discovered later.

Traffic will be affected near Watson Park starting next week as the city installs a new tunnel as part of its stormwater improvements.

The tunnel is intended to reroute an existing storm sewer that runs underneath the Outdoor Aquatic Center. As the Journal-World has reported, the city discovered partway through its stormwater improvements in the area that the sewer passed under the pool – specifically, under the zero-depth entry part of the pool that was structurally failing.

After discovering this, the city made what Engineering Program Manager Nick Hoyt described as a multimillion-dollar change to its plans in order to reroute the storm sewer so that it would no longer run beneath the pool. The new version will pass through Watson Park beneath the basketball courts, and the city announced in a news release Tuesday that it would need to close parts of multiple streets to install it.

Starting Monday, July 6, Tennessee Street will be reduced to one lane between Sixth and Ninth streets. There will also be no parking allowed on the street. These changes are expected to last until early October.

Seventh Street will also be closed completely starting next week between Tennessee and Kentucky streets, and that closure is expected to last through late July or early August. The sidewalk on the south side of Seventh Street will also be closed.

The basketball court in Watson Park will be closed during the project, as well, but the playground areas on Kentucky Street will not, and the Outdoor Aquatic Center will not be affected, either.

In addition to the stormwater work, this project will also include curb replacements on Tennessee Street and a mill and overlay on the street surface.

This project is part of the broader Jayhawk Watershed Project, which involves multiple areas of the city, including the construction work that has closed Ninth Street for months.