Governor announces U.S. 69 project

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback describes the eight projects selected for funding under the T-WORKS program Wednesday afternoon at the Kansas Department of Transportation sub-area office, just south of Fort Scott, on the second day of his four-day, five-city tour to announce all the ventures selected for funding under the program. (Michael Pommier/Tribune)

Gov. Sam Brownback announced Wednesday a $47 million project to modernize U.S. Highway 69 between Fort Scott and Arma.

Brownback's Fort Scott news conference was part of a four-day, five-city tour, which kicked off in Wichita on Monday, to reveal the projects selected for funding under the T-WORKS program, the comprehensive transportation program passed by the 2010 Kansas legislature. The multi-million-dollar improvement plan will expand U.S. 69 to a four-lane upgradable expressway from the south end of Fort Scott to the north end of Arma.

This will include the addition of two more lanes along the 12-mile stretch of road, creating an expressway, while maintaining all the current access points. In addition, the necessary right-of-way property would be acquired to upgrade the expressway to a freeway in the future.

Kansas Transportation Secretary Deb Miller talks about the T-WORKS program Wednesday afternoon at the Kansas Department of Transportation sub-area office, just south of Fort Scott, prior to introducing Kan. Gov. Sam Brownback the second day of a four-day, five-city tour to announce the projects selected for funding under the T-WORKS program. (Michael Pommier/Tribune)

A specific schedule has not yet been announced, but bids for the project, among several others Brownback spoke about, will be let between 2014-2020, according to information provided at the news conference.

"Today is an exciting day for transportation in Kansas and it's a day many businesses and communities across the state have been waiting for," Fort Scott Mayor Jim Adams said as he kicked off the ceremony at the Kansas Department of Transportation sub-area office.

"This is a key project for the economic growth for the region and for safety," Brownback said.

Combined with the other seven projects selected from the Southeast Kansas region, a total of $190 million will be spent on expanding or modernizing 70 miles of highway in the region.

"I think it's key for us as we're on this road to recovery and road to progress that we invest in our future, even in tough budgetary times," Brownback said.

Fort Scott resident Dean Mann, who has been involved with the U.S. Highway 69 Association for the last 15 years, said news of the expansion means all the years of hard work are finally coming to fruition.

"It's a great relief ... I'm just elated. This is fantastic for our community and our region," he said.

Brownback said that Reader's Digest has said Kansas has the best roads in country. He said that a lot of the state's economic expansion is tied to manufacturing and Pittsburg State University -- which now has more students from Johnson County than any other part of the state.

"Manufacturing hasn't been well regarded for some period of time in the country," Brownback said. "We've said 'well we'll just let it go to China or happen somewhere else.' That is a wrong answer. It's a wrong answer for America and it's a wrong answer for Kansas."

The T-WORKS program has already allocated millions of dollars statewide for smaller scale projects to help preserve the state's transportation system, said Kansas Transportation Secretary Deb Miller, who is accompanying Brownback on the announcement tour.

"The expansion and modernization projects we're announcing this week are really just a portion the work that will be done under T-WORKS," she said.

Miller said the T-WORKS program is smaller than the previous two transpiration programs that were passed in 1989 and 1999, however, the projects are "right-sized for our times." She added that because of the smaller scope of the program, KDOT has had to get creative in planning projects with some projects being chosen with lower-cost options such as expressways rather than freeways or passing lanes rather than four-lane expansions.

"Because T-WORKS is significantly smaller than earlier programs, we have worked hard to stretch our dollars coming up with innovations and new approaches," she said. "On some projects we have been designing to a budget rather than to the full-blown scopes of past projects, recognizing that some improvement is indeed better than no improvement at all."

Other projects to be completed in the region include reconstruction of Kansas Highway 7 from Columbus to Cherokee, reconstruction of the U.S. Highway 166 and U.S. Highway 400 interchange and dollar-stretching practical improvement projects such as the construction of passing lanes on U.S. Highway 400.

The full list of expansion and modernization projects can be viewed on the T-WORKS website at www.ksdot.org/t-works.