photo by: Colorado Department of Transportation

An express lane is pictured in this video screenshot from the Colorado Department of Transportation.

News and notes from around town:

• Time is running out for area residents to give state leaders ideas on how to improve Kansas Highway 10, including a proposal that would widen parts of the state highway with tolled express lanes.

The Kansas Department of Transportation is hosting a virtual public meeting through Jan. 2 to receive suggestions on how the state highway should be improved in the coming years. The road, which is a main link between Lawrence and Johnson County, may undergo a lot of changes in the near future, as it is expected to be a major link for Panasonic’s new 4,000-job electric battery plant that is under construction in De Soto.

KDOT officials say their K-10 study will focus on ways “to improve safety, relieve congestion, and enhance K-10’s key role in supporting existing and future development.”

But don’t be surprised if one idea gets more attention from the public than others — tolled express lanes.

KDOT is actively considering expanding portions of K-10 to a six-lane highway by adding one new lane in each direction. That new lane would be an express lane that motorists would have to pay a toll to use.

The idea is different than making K-10 a complete tollway. As described by KDOT on its project website, K-10 would continue to have two lanes of traffic in each direction that would not require a toll to use. But if motorists want to drive in a less congested lane, they could pull into the express lane.

The express lane would be equipped with technology like license plate readers, which would allow the state to send motorists a bill. The express lanes likely would have digital signs mounted above the roadway, telling motorists how much it would cost to travel in the express lanes. The digital signs would allow state officials to change the rates based on how congested the road is at any given moment.

If you are familiar with the express lane system in Colorado, the system on K-10 likely would be similar. On its website, KDOT is sharing a Colorado video to help users understand how an express lane system might work here.

Whether the state would expand all of K-10 to three lanes in each direction is unclear, and likely is something KDOT leaders want opinions on from the public. Thus far, most of the discussion has centered on tolled express lanes in Johnson County from the Cedar Creek Parkway interchange to I-435. At the moment, it appears KDOT is not seriously considering widening portions of the highway in Douglas County.

While the express lane proposal is likely to be a hot topic, KDOT leaders want to hear feedback on other possible changes too. According to the website, KDOT is seeking feedback on possible interchange improvements, bridge improvements, and “non-roadway solutions,” which could include projects involving transit services or new types of technology.

I think KDOT officials also are open to ideas that fall outside those categories. (I’m sure Lawrence commuters will lobby for a plan that would cause the sun to come up in the west and set in the east.)

People can join the virtual public meeting at k10.ksdot.gov.

• Keep your eyes open for another type of expansion in Lawrence. Plans have been filed to expand the Walmart at Sixth Street and Wakarusa Drive, although it is probably not the type of expansion you have in mind.

The west Lawrence Walmart is much smaller than the south Iowa Street Walmart, but this expansion plan isn’t looking to really address that issue. Instead, Walmart wants to build a 4,500-square-foot addition onto the east end of its store at 550 Congressional Drive to accommodate its online grocery business.

The new addition wouldn’t be open to the general public, but rather would be for Walmart staff who fill online grocery orders. The space would have coolers, freezers and other storage areas to place grocery orders that are awaiting pickup, according to the plans filed at Lawrence City Hall.

But the expansion plans could be significant in another way. The project would require a zoning change for the Walmart store. It currently has planned commercial development zoning, and one of the conditions on that zoning is the Walmart store shall not exceed 100,000 square feet in size.

Walmart is now seeking a more traditional commercial zoning designation — Community Commercial 600, if you are into such things — which would allow the store to exceed 100,000 square feet.

It could be interesting to see whether the zoning request draws any opposition. The Sixth Street Walmart — which opened in 2009, seven years after it was first proposed — created a lot of public debate and a lawsuit that revolved around how large the store should be. That’s how the west Lawrence store ended up being about half the size of the Walmart on south Iowa Street.

Again, the plans filed with the city would add only 4,500 square feet to the store. It is not clear that the public would object to that size of an addition. But if there is a belief that the rezoning opens the door for a much bigger Walmart, that might be a different story. Or, maybe after about 15 years of living with a smaller-than-normal Walmart, westside residents wouldn’t mind a bigger one.

Either way, it is probably a moot point. There is no good reason to believe that Walmart is interested in anything other than the 4,500-square-foot expansion.