photo by: Douglas County

This map shows the conceptual road alignment, right-of-way and anticipated environmental factors of a proposed project to extend Wakarusa Drive south of Lawrence and build a bridge over the Wakarusa River.

Contentious plans to extend Wakarusa Drive south of the Wakarusa River have been mired in the preliminary planning phase, but Douglas County commissioners are on the verge of freeing up money to get the project moving.

The tentative plan by commissioners pertains to the county’s five-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) budget, which is set to be adopted as part of the county’s 2024 budget on Aug. 30. Chad Voigt, the county’s Public Works director, told the Journal-World that he was initially hopeful bidding for the project would happen by next summer, but said that late 2024 or early 2025 now appears more likely. The project will need some approvals from the Kansas Department of Transportation, so the second quarter of 2025 is probably the earliest construction would begin.

“I think we’re still in a position to meet that timeline,” Voigt said.

But to meet that timeline, the county likely will have to put off until 2028 key repairs on County Route 1061 near Eudora that is expected to see increased traffic as Panasonic opens a $4 billion, 4,000-job battery plant in nearby De Soto in 2025.

Whether commissioners want to make that tradeoff is one of the questions they likely will address during their upcoming CIP discussion.

The County Route 1061 project involves a series of road, culvert and bridge improvements that are expected to be important if the area sees new traffic and new development as the Panasonic plant opens. The 10-mile stretch road is the main road that runs south of Eudora and goes all the way to U.S. Highway 56 just east of Baldwin City. The northern portion of the road is about 10 minutes west of the Pansonic plant, while the southern portion of the road is near the large intermodal shipping hub operated by Burlington Northern Santa Fe in Edgerton.

“My question is, can we wait that long?” Douglas County Commissioner Karen Willey asked at a recent meeting.

Voigt is recommending that the county wait until 2028 to tackle the various 1061 projects all at once. The alternative is to stretch the various projects over several construction seasons, which could mean the key road is intermittently closed for multiple years in a row.

“After getting to the point where those are real and scheduled, it became obvious that we were creating a situation where we were closing the road every other year,” he said, “and that didn’t make sense.

“Doing all of the work in one year will be very expensive and stretch our resources. But it will be better for everybody involved because there won’t be this repeated closure year-after-year. We’re going to be busy with what we’ve got, so 2028 is a pretty good target.”

Starting Wakarusa

Pushing the County Route 1061 projects back in the CIP also will make it easier for the county to start the Wakarusa Drive extension project without having to dip too deeply into the fund balances of the CIP program, which are expected to total about $25 million in reserves at the end of this year.

The county has earmarked $8.4 million for the Wakarusa project, with that figure serving as a partnership-match with the Kansas Department of Transportation. The City of Lawrence was also involved at one point, but balked at plans to proceed forward.

City commissioners withdrew their support after hearing multiple concerns from residents ranging from environmental issues to concerns that the road would damage land that is sacred to the Native American community.

County commissioners have stood behind the plan, in part because they are hearing of longstanding needs for a new north-south route for rural residents.

As previously reported by the Journal-World, the blueprint calls for the Wakarusa River bridge to replace a trio of outdated bridges that existed prior to the construction of Clinton Lake and Kansas Highway 10. County officials have surmised that the extension of Wakarusa is necessary because of “existing and future traffic volumes,” with a comprehensive report noting that it would carry an estimated 3,650 vehicles per day and become one of the most heavily-trafficked routes maintained by the county.

“The proposed extension of Wakarusa Drive over the Wakarusa River will restore a critical north-south connection in Douglas County’s road network,” according to the original project report delivered to commissioners. The construction of Clinton Reservoir and the South Lawrence Trafficway “impacted the local road system prior to the mid 1990s,” further highlighting the need to “restore a north-south arterial roadway west of US-59 Highway.”  

For the project, county commissioners have tentatively allocated $3.75 million in its 2025 CIP budget, and $4.2 million in ’26. An additional $450,000 is slotted into the 2024 CIP budget, which could potentially be expended on the bridge’s design phase.

“We’re just penciling ideas out at this point,” Voigt said of the plan’s design element.

Working with KDOT

The Wakarusa project has gained momentum as KDOT is moving ahead with plans to expand the western half of the South Lawrence Trafficway to four lanes. State officials see now as the logical time to also extend Wakarusa Drive.

Voigt said the work KDOT is doing on the SLT project will make the Wakarusa project easier than it would be if the county was tackling it at a different time.

“KDOT is really setting this up with the work that they are doing,” he said. “Once they’ve got the interchange built at Wakarusa, it’s fairly easy to just pick that up and extend it south a mile and a quarter.”

Voigt added that work on the SLT project — which will be the largest road project in the county when it gets started — is progressing well.

“They’ve been working on that project for about five years,” Voigt said of KDOT. He said the project should break ground by late 2024 or early 2025.

County commissioners are scheduled to meet at 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 30 to discuss the CIP plan and various options. In total the CIP calls for 30 Road and Bridge projects between 2024 and 2028, totaling $31 million in expenditures. The CIP also consists of more than three dozen facilities projects between 2024 and 2029 for a total sum of $10.8 million, although all dollar figures are estimates and likely will change.

In addition to the design work for the Wakarusa Drive extension, other projects scheduled to receive funding in 2024 include: 

• Bridge deck replacement at North 700 Road (Route 460) over Captain Creek — $800,000 allocation

• Bridge replacement at North 900 Road over Washington Creek — $700,000 allocation

• Route 1061 culvert replacements, $950,000 allocation (Of six Route 1061 projects, this is the only one that was not moved to 2028.) 

• Ongoing patching and paving for asphalt project that paved a one mile stretch of North 1200 road in 2021, which serves as the designated haul route for Eudora quarry — $100,000 allocation.  

• Bridge channel stabilization at North 600 Road (Route 460) — $200,000 allocation

• Railroad crossing safety improvements for North 1500 Road. The area of road was recently reclassified from a township to a county road, based on traffic levels of approximately 2,500 vehicles per day. The project will modify the roadway alignment to improve existing safety conditions — $445,000 allocation amount.