Web posted
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Studying the corridor
US-77 study shows growth possibilities
See complete study
By DAVE SEATON
Staff Writer
A study of the US-77 corridor in Cowley County is complete.
The study deals with anticipated growth along the four-lane, federal highway between Winfield and Arkansas City.
Recommendations for changes in traffic patterns, safety and land use near the highway are included in the study report. It also contains detailed recommendations for the economic development of the corridor.
Begun in July 2006, the study was requested by Cowley County and the cities of Winfield and Arkansas City. The Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) authorized the study and is part of what is called the US-77 Partnership.
A consulting firm with offices in Overland Park HNTB, did the work. HTNB is the former Howard, Needles, Tammen & Bergendoff.
The consultant's work included an analysis of traffic flows, research into the history of accidents on US-77, suggesting intersection and access-road improvements, reviewing methods of land-use regulation, preparing detailed maps and analyzing the market.
Based on the market analysis, the report projects opportunities for new retail outlets.
The cost of the study was $250,000. The Department of Transportation was to pay two-thirds of the cost and the cities of Arkansas City and Winfield were to have shared the other third.
Corridor studies are intended to engage local communities near heavily traveled highways in planning for the future. The purpose is to prepare the way for development, improve safety, maintain through traffic and save the costs of correcting mistakes.
"Twenty years from now people will know if you planned poorly -- or not at all," said Winfield City Manager Warren Porter. "But if we plan well, they won't even know it." The city of Winfield was lead agency in the study.
The study involved a number of local officials in the fields of transportation and economic development, as well as private-sector leaders.
Leonard Richardson of Winfield and Wayne Short, of Arkansas City, served as citizen members of a US-77 Technical Committee created for the study.
Four public hearings were held. A hearing held March 29, 2007, at the Brown Center at Cowley College in Arkansas City drew between 50 and 60 people, Arkansas City City Manager Doug Russell said.
The US-77 corridor study is one of a few KDOT has undertaken outside a metropolitan area, according to Allen Grunder, KDOT area engineer.
Other corridor studies include one getting underway along I-135 between Newton and Wichita, one along US 254 between El Dorado and Wichita and a major study along K-10 between Lawrence and Kansas City.
Cowley County Administrator LeRoy Alsup said the US-77 corridor study should help local units of government secure funding from KDOT for transportation improvements in the corridor. Porter and Russell agreed.
The US-77 corridor is defined in the study as beginning at State Line Road south of Arkansas City and extending north to the intersection of US 77 and K-350, the Winfield bypass. The portion of US 77 north of Winfield, which passes through Rock, is not included.
There may be limited opportunity for new corridor studies in Kansas as existing highway funding is used up, Thomas Dow, assistant chief of transportation planning at KDOT, said. He saw the US-77 study as valuable to the state's transportation system as a whole.
"KDOT and our local government partners believe that developing a corridor master plan to guide future decisions along this highway is critical to the long-term success of US-77," Dow said.
However, the market analysis and the suggestions flowing from it reach beyond the corridor itself to all of Cowley County. The US-77 corridor as such is defined in the study as the area within a half mile east and west of the highway's center line.
The decision to undertake the study followed KDOT's refusal to authorize a stop light for a Wal-Mart Supercenter south of Winfield. The agency asked for a more comprehensive approach, and the three units of local government came together to request the study.
The Wal-Mart center was eventually located in Winfield.
The study also follows a series of fatal accidents on the highway between 2000 and 2005, including four near the Strother Field airport/industrial park. Recommendations in the report related to safety call for closing two entrances from US-77 to Strother Field, and the construction of several overpasses and new access roads.
Many of these recommendations are long term.
The report includes cost estimates for several types of transportation improvements. There is no overall cost estimate.
For example, improving an existing at-grade intersection to a two-lane roundabout is estimated to cost $800,000. Improving an at-grade intersection to a grade-separated interchange with access to US 77 is estimated to cost $13 million.
The study is now in Topeka where KDOT attorneys are reviewing it, Grunder said. The next step is to present the study to the three local units of government for their consideration. Grunder expects another public hearing will be held "before everything is signed and delivered."
No date for a new hearing has been set.
|
