BonnerSprings.com

The Kansas Highway 7 and Interstate 70 interchange project was on the table during a workshop before Monday night’s City Council meeting, but the council wasn’t buying it.

“I think it’s atrocious,” council member Jeff Harrington said of the project, which would involve the construction of three new interchanges at K-7 and 130th Street, K-7 and I-70 and K-7 and Kansas Avenue. “I think it’s extremely confusing, detrimental to our community. It will compromise a huge portion of developable land, of which there is not much.”

Aaron Frits, road squad leader for Kansas Department of Transportation, Timothy Ross, a consultant to KDOT and senior vice president of GBA Architects Engineers, and Triveece Harvey, city planner for Patti Banks Associates, were on hand to present the current design of the project, a diagram of how it will eventually look and the new accompanying Web site, k7andi70interchange.org.

The project would be divided into two phases, but during his portion of the presentation, Frits said there was currently no money in the pot for KDOT to begin construction on either phase. What there is money for, he said, is an additional left hand turn lane to be built at southbound K-7 and Canaan Center Drive. Bids should be let on the turn lane in May, and the project is expected to be complete by the end of the summer.

Following the presentation, Frits and his associates opened the floor up for questions from the council members, but the time was mostly taken up with comments and accusations about KDOT’s handling of the project and the negative effect the interchange system would have on the city.

One of Harrington’s main issues was that his and other’s concerns hadn’t really been addressed throughout the years leading up to this point. During the K-7 Corridor Management Study conducted from 2004 to 2006, officials from KDOT met with affected officials to gather input and gauge how much traffic volume there would be in each area.

“At each stage (KDOT) presented it for public input but have done nothing with the public input,” Harrington said later.

Frits said all the cities along the K-7 corridor had signed a memorandum of understanding, acknowledging they understood and approved of the project. But Harrington claims the project outlined in the memorandum isn’t at all what KDOT will go forward with once money becomes available – a plan he said will take away and effectively separate large portions of land around the new interchange system.

“My understanding was the memorandum did not require us to compromise our developable space,” Harrington said during a later interview. “I’m absolutely not surprised that KDOT would conduct themselves this way at all.”

Harrington suggested at the workshop that, instead of creating three interchanges, KDOT could elevate K-7 and include flyovers where necessary. In this way, a lot less land would have to be taken up. Ross, of GBA, said flyovers were actually looked at as an option but would be much more expensive than the design KDOT was proposing.

During a later interview, Frits said flyovers took up much more land than people might think, and K-7 would, in fact, be elevated over Kansas Avenue, the yet-to-be-constructed Speaker Road, 130th Street and Canaan Center Drive. He said once the project was completed in around 30 to 40 years, K-7 would become a freeway running from Miami County to Leavenworth County, and it would be a much safer way of travel than it is now.

“Our guiding principle is we want to create a safe facility where drivers can get from point A to point B,” Frits said.

At the workshop, council member Rodger Shannon said he didn’t want a “freeway” in Bonner Springs.

“Not in our town,” he said.

Harrington said later his main concern was Bonner Springs would just become a city in between points on a freeway.

“They want people to go through Bonner, not stop in Bonner,” Harrington said. “It’s gonna cost us. Not money, but loss.”

A public meeting about the project will be from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 5, at Bonner Springs High School.

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