Committee discusses U.S. 69 expansion

Representatives from the Kansas Department of Transportation, TranSystems, and several area businesses and organizations gathered at Fort Scott City Hall Monday for the second meeting of the advisory committee for the U.S. Highway 69 Corridor from Fort Scott to Arma.

The meeting featured a presentation to the committee of new information developed by KDOT and TranSystems, a Wichita-based transportation consulting firm, followed by a question and answer session to get feedback from the committee.

The bulk of the presentation consisted of discussing the difference between the three options for the expansion: expressway, upgradable expressway, and freeway.

Mark Kenneally, of TranSystems, said the difference between the three options is mostly the control of accessibility. An expressway would essentially add two lanes to the existing corridor from the Kansas Highway 7 junction to 680th Avenue in Crawford County. Within a freeway, the accessibility to the highway is controlled by grade separations -- overpasses with exit and entry ramps -- while the upgradable expressway puts some of the access points in place to be developed into a freeway while keeping some of the access points of an expressway.

The discussion with the committee revolved around cost. According to Kenneally, the expressway option would cost about $40 million in the 2016 fiscal year, while the freeway option would cost about $90 million.

Kenneally said the cost of the upgradable expressway has not been determined because the amount of funding and the available options for access points have not yet been solidified.

Rod Lacy, of KDOT, said that one of the problems with identifying what the upgradable expressway would be is that "a lot of people across the state have a different idea of upgradable."

Advisory committee member Clayton Tatro, representing Fort Scott Community College, asked if there was a way to find out how close the cost of the upgradable expressway would be compared to the freeway. He said if it was close, it would be best to go with the freeway option, which is what already exists between Fort Scott and Overland Park.

"I like the idea of the upgradable (expressway,) but I'm concerned we won't get there," Tatro said about not being confident that the state would ever get around to completing the conversion from the upgradable expressway to a freeway.

The advisory committee will meet next in early spring, in about six to eight weeks. KDOT will host an open house later that evening to discuss the plans with the public and get feedback from residents. The time, date, and location of the open house will be announced at a later date.