The Garden City Telegram
Email this story | Add Your Comment
| Read (0) Comments
KDOT stops road closure for now
Published 10/28/2009 in Local News
By SHAJIA AHMAD
A petition from a Holcomb convenience store owner to close a county road has been halted by the order of a district court judge because state transportation officials believe the closure will inhibit public access to frontage roads and further complicate planned detour roads for the ongoing U.S. Highway 50 construction project.
Click to Purchase Photo Reprints!
Laurie Sisk/Telegram A truck drives on a frontage road near U.S. Highway 50 construction west of Garden City. Kansas Department of Transportation had to change its detour plan because part of the frontage road has been vacated, making it a private road, after a petition from property owners.
A Tuesday hearing was canceled after a judge ruled last week that a temporary restraining order KDOT officials requested will continue until the road closure matter comes before the court in late November.
Presta Oil Inc., the company that owns the Presto convenience store at 7935 W. U.S. 50, filed a petition with the county in early September to vacate a portion of frontage road south of the property and parallel to the highway.
Frontage road south of two other properties to the west of Presto -- land belonging to George Rapp and Carson Hobbs -- already was closed to public access following petitions filed with the Finney County Commission that were unanimously approved earlier this year, on May 4 and July 20, respectively.
Larry Thompson, a southwest district engineer for KDOT, said following the Rapp road closure, officials had to redesign the detour road they initially envisioned as they began work on the North Big Lowe and U.S. 50 interchange: a detour road that would run east and west on the county road connecting North Big Lowe Road and IBP road in Holcomb.
Now, due to the county road closures, traffic will have to enter and exit the frontage road on a yet-to-be designed detour interchange halfway between Big Lowe Road and IBP Road.
"It's a less desirable detour, but it will have to do," Thompson said.
Members of the county board said they did not receive much opposition to the requests by the property owners, Finney County Commissioner Cliff Mayo said.
Finney County Commissioner Dave Jones said Rapp requested the road closure because he believed traffic would greatly increase in front of his property if the county road were to be used as a detour for the highway project.
Rapp could not be reached for comment, and a phone message to Hobbs was not returned Thursday night.
KDOT legal counsel argue in their injuction request to halt the County Commission from taking action on Presta Oil's road closure petition because if the county were to hear and approve it, the transportation agency would not be able to "provide adequate detouring during construction and reasonable access to all abutting property owners after completion of the project," according to district court documents.
Closure of the frontage road also would delay the highway project and potentially create unsafe roadway conditions, according to court documents.
Phone messages to Topeka attorney Vernon L. Jarboe, legal counsel representing Presta Oil Inc., also were not returned Thursday.
A hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Nov. 20 at the Finney County District Courthouse.
KDOT officials closed North Big Lowe Road just north of U.S. Highway 50 Monday, temporarily diverting Holcomb traffic for several weeks as they begin the next phase of construction on the highway's four-lane project.
Contractors are completing a tie-in to level the intersection of North Big Lowe Road just north of Holcomb Scraper Inc., before the detour road is opened for public access. All traffic on Big Lowe north of the highway will be detoured onto the access road, and Big Lowe will be closed completely north of U.S. 50.
KDOT officials have said they plan to have the entire four-lane project, costing nearly $48 million, complete by July 2011, which extends from IBP Road in Holcomb to the Third Street/U.S. 50 intersection just north of Garden City.
Transportation officials hope the project will reduce the number of points at which traffic is entering and exiting along the highway and improve intersection safety by adding turn lanes with ramps for vehicles to enter and exit the highway.
Found 0 comment(s)!
Twitter Updates
