photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Construction crews work on the South Lawrence Trafficway expansion project near the Bob Billing interchange on Oct. 23, 2024.

News and notes from around town:

• Usually RVs and dump trucks don’t mingle, but they might for the next few years in far west Lawrence.

Plans have been filed with the Lawrence-Douglas County planning office for a major construction landfill and borrow site for the South Lawrence Trafficway expansion. The facility is proposed to be near the entrance of Clinton State Park, where the bulk of the lake’s campgrounds and marina are located.

Specifically, the facility, 1433 East 900 Road, will be just north of the RV and boat storage business that is located in the old convenience store location at the entrance to the state park. What will be happening at the site? In short, construction crews will be digging several holes and then filling them back up. Crews will be removing a lot of dirt that will be used to build the two additional lanes of the South Lawrence Trafficway. If you have forgotten, the roadway will expand from two lanes to four lanes west of Iowa Street. Crews also will be hauling in lots of dirt, old pavement, steel rebar, and other such debris that is created from the construction project.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The construction landfill and borrow site for the South Lawrence Trafficway project is proposed for 55-acres just north of the R.V. and boat storage business at the entrance to Clinton State Park.

On peak days, expect about 100 trucks per day entering and leaving the site. The applicant — Oskaloosa-based King’s Construction — is seeking permission to operate from sunup to sundown Monday through Saturday. The SLT project is expected to last until about spring 2028.

Dump trucks and other construction traffic coming from the south will be passing in front of the state park entrance, traveling along East 900 Road. Construction traffic coming from the north will use a separate entrance that involves the creation of a new road. The project would use a new East 875 Road that would connect to the area near the Bob Billings and SLT interchange.

The SLT project — which has a price tag of about $170 million — will need lots of dirt to get completed. The application estimates the project will need about 100,000 cubic yards of dirt and fill material. However, the project is going to create even more need for landfill space. The application estimates it will produce 200,000 cubic yards of “construction and demolition waste.” I’m not sure this site will be the only borrow and landfill facility for the project, but it looks to at least be the primary one.

The project does have to win some planning approvals from both the Planning Commission and the County Commission before moving forward. The project needs a conditional use permit to proceed, which requires a hearing by both bodies.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

A site at the southeast corner of Bob Billings Parkway and Research Park Drive is shown on Oct. 23, 2024.

• I have dental-related news, which is almost never a good thing after having talked about digging a big hole and filling it. But no need to break out into a cold sweat over this one. Instead, I’m passing along news that plans have been filed for a new dental office building in west Lawrence.

Look for the new facility at the southeast corner of Bob Billings Parkway and Research Park Drive. Plans call for a 6,000-square-foot building and a parking lot to be constructed on the vacant lot. The plans are also being filed in a way to carve out a space for a second 5,000-square-foot building to be constructed on the site in the future. The immediate building will be on the north part of the site, with frontage along Bob Billings Parkway. The second building would be on the south end of the parking lot, farther from Bob Billings.

The plans indicate the project will create a new home for an existing dental business in town. The plans are labeled Wakarusa Dental, and list Jason Edwards as a developer of the project. Edwards is the dentist at Wakarusa Family Dental, according to that company’s website. That dental practice currently is located in west Lawrence at 4901 Legends Drive.

The project has most of the approvals it needs to move forward. Zoning is in place for the site, and the project is now just seeking some technical design approvals.

photo by: City of Lawrence/McClure Engineering

The location for a planned supportive housing project by Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center is shown.

• There are signs that work is getting ready to begin on a new supportive housing project for people who are homeless and have a mental illness. As we have reported, Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center announced last year that it was moving forward with a $12 million-plus project that would combine social service offices and supported apartment units at a vacant site at 530 Rockledge Road.

The organization has now filed a site plan for the project, which is one of the last steps in the approval process before construction could begin. The site plan calls for a three-story building of approximately 48,000 square feet to be constructed on the site, which is just northeast of the Hampton Inn hotel on Sixth Street.

The first floor would include about 25,000 square feet of office space for social service agencies, while the second and third floors would house apartments. In total, there will be 26 bedrooms across the two floors.

As Bert Nash officials have described, the office space is expected to house case managers, outreach coordinators and other such positions that can directly serve residents of the apartments, among others. The apartments will serve individuals with low incomes who qualify for housing vouchers, and who also are experiencing serious mental illness.