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Bonner Springs and Edwardsville are to receive upwards of $1.2 million in transportation enhancement funds through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The Mid-America Regional Council Board of Directors released its list of recommendations on March 3 as to which cities should receive funding. The amount recommended for Bonner Springs is $440,000 for a 138th Street north rebuild. Funding recommended for Edwardsville is $775,000 to be used for the reconstruction of on and off ramps at the I-435 and Woodend Road interchange, as well as various improvements to Woodend Road.

These recommendations are tantamount to approval from MARC for the funds, but with some conditions, said MARC Assistant Director of Transportation Ron Achelpohl.

“The short answer is, yes, they can expect to see (the funds),” Achelpohl said. “But there’s still some work they will need to do to get those funds.”

This work includes an agreement that each city still needs to make with KDOT to receive the funding, in addition to making sure all environmental clearances are completed. A right of way also has to be made available at the project site, and all project plans and specs must be approved by KDOT before the cities can go to bid on the project.

Achelpohl said these funds were reimbursement funds. Each city will first spend its own money on the transportation projects and will then be reimbursed by KDOT for the agreed upon amount.

The Bonner Springs and Edwardsville projects make up two of the 39 projects expected to be funded through the ARRA in the Kansas City bistate area. Funding for all 39 projects will total around $51 million.

The deadline for cities to submit applications for project funding was Feb. 13. The city of Edwardsville had originally submitted applications for two projects, the I-435 and Woodend Road interchange and a reconstruction to 110th Street from southbound I-70 to K-32. The city of Bonner Springs had submitted a number of projects, including several phases to the walking trail project, a rebuild to Metropolitan Avenue from 134th to 138th streets and a rebuild to Kansas Avenue from 138th to 142nd streets. Requested funding for these projects totaled more than $4.5 million. Bonner Springs City Manager John Helin said he was happy with the amount of funding the city is looking at getting.

“Some cities didn’t get any funding,” he said.

As for when cities can expect to receive final approval from KDOT for projects, Achelpohl said this is all dependent on how long it takes to accomplish these last necessary steps. Bonner Springs and Edwardsville have already completed the required environmental clearances, so he said this could be a “pretty quick process.”

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