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KDOT to prioritize long list of projects
Published 3/14/2009 in News
By STEPHANIE FARLEY
Count the projects vying for $3 million in stimulus money through the Kansas Department of Transportation, and you'd find 32.
To KDOT District 6 Engineer Larry Thompson, the list of proposed projects — totaling about $20.3 million in 19 counties that comprise KDOT's District 6 — illustrates there's a lot of need in southwest Kansas for road, highway and other infrastructure maintenance and construction projects.
"We've known that for 20 years," Thompson said of the huge amount of need compared to the inadequate amount of funding available from year to year to meet the need for road/highway projects throughout the state. Thompson cited both state comprehensive transportation plans, totaling 20 years, with the first 10-year plan KDOT started in 1989 only addressing about 20 percent of road construction and maintenance needed in the state at the time — the 1999 plan took care of just a little more than 20 percent, he said.
Friday afternoon marked the deadline for submitting road/highway/transportation projects to KDOT. The $3 million available came from the $32 million of stimulus money made available by KDOT to local entities in the six districts for such projects.
Out of the applications, Finney County/Garden City applied for about $3.4 million; Haskell County, $1 million; Cimarron, $802,200; Meade County, $488,500; Scott County, $645,000; Clark County, $1.01 million; Johnson City, $433,500; Hamilton County, $496,800; Liberal, $2.886 million; Elkhart, $355,600; Hodgeman County, $160,000; Hugoton, $1.31 million; Ford County, $1.08 million; Dodge City, $4.493 million; Ulysses/Grant County, $478,500; Seward County, $767,800; and Lakin, $479,500.
There was another $38 million that went to the Kansas City and Wichita metro areas, with a large portion of the approximately $348 million Kansas received from the Economic Stimulus American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for transportation projects going to KDOT road/highway projects.
To determine the stimulus amount each district — minus the metro areas — would receive, KDOT evaluated the total special city/county highway funds a district receives annually from the state. The special city/county highway fund is a formula by which the state shares its gas tax dollars with local agencies.
District 6 received about $3 million in stimulus funds based on $10,819,612 in annual special highway funds.
Projects cities and counties applied for include asphalt overlays, bridge replacement, removal and replacement of road and highway sections with concrete, mill and inlay, intersection reconstruction, etc.
Garden City Engineer Steve Cottrell and Finney County Public Works Director John Ellermann hand-delivered the joint city/county application for the Jennie Barker Road/Mary Street/Kansas Highway 156 intersection project, as well as the estimated $1.7 million Jones Avenue project that would consist of about 6.5 miles of mill and 2-inch overlay on the road.
The total cost of the intersection project is estimated at about $5 million to, among other things, four-lane Mary Street and Jennie Barker Road through the intersection. The city of Garden City and county are jointly requesting $2 million in stimulus funding for the intersection project.
Next week's meeting with KDOT construction and area engineers is the next step for Thompson and KDOT staff in prioritizing the list of projects. Thompson said he thought the group would develop a list of the top projects without assigning dollars to the list, and then go back through the whittled-down project list and figure out what KDOT can do moneywise.
Thompson explained that before KDOT would give less money than requested to a project, KDOT would speak to the parties involved to see whether the project could still go with the amount of funding KDOT was able to give. If the proposed amount given wouldn't be enough to allow the entity or entities to move forward, then something else would need to be done, such as possibly phasing the project instead of doing it all at once.
There's not much negotiation time, though, Thompson said, explaining the engineers need to get the selected project list to KDOT in Topeka early next week for review and announcement by March 20.
As Thompson sat in his local KDOT office a little after 4 p.m. Friday, he said KDOT staff was going to try to use a rating system — with roughly 10 people in the group — to select which projects will receive funding. Factors Thompson and KDOT staff will look at include whether the project creates jobs, addresses safety, will be completed in three years and will be ready for bid by December.
According to Cottrell, the Jennie Barker Road/Mary Street/Kansas Highway 156 intersection project has been discussed as far back as September 1999 by the city, Finney County and KDOT when the entities started working on a corridor master plan for K-156 Highway — the plan lays out a long-term vision for what K-156 Highway will look like from Main Street to 16 Mile Road.
There's a lot of need in southwest Kansas, Cottrell said, adding the city could've certainly applied for more projects but chose to stick with its priority of the intersection project.
"I certainly don't envy the challenge that Larry Thompson and his staff have before them," he said.
Cottrell has said the intersection project could be phased if total funding isn't awarded.
Download a spreadsheet of all the transportation projects submitted by area cities and counties for stimulus funding.
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