Development north of I-70 reaching all-time high

By ERIC W. NORRIS

Hays Daily News

Over the past year, development north of Interstate 70 has been steadily on the rise especially as the Home Depot development begins to take shape and other developers and investors look at that area.

And as basic as it sounds, roads are needed to bring consumers to developments.

As the area continues to grow and development expands, creating an infrastructure of roads is the focus of construction efforts to support future businesses north of I-70.

Access and frontage roads are undergoing the bulk construction and additions as the area is prepared for a burst of development activity.

Much of the construction work is part of an ongoing enhancement project by the Kansas Department of Transportation, which has contracted APAC- Kansas Inc. of Hays.

Roth Avenue, which sits just west of U.S. Highway 183, has been completed from 45th to 48th, and work will begin again in April to finish Roth Avenue out to 55th Street. Storm and sanitary sewer lines have been complete.

Once Roth Avenue breeches 55th Street, crews will move across Highway 183 to the east, laying concrete pavement for General Hays Road.

Although storm sewer drainage work has also begun on that side of the highway, the actual road will not be complete until late spring.

General Hays Road will eventually connect 55th to 41st Street, which leads directly into the Home Depot development.

By 2006, KDOT Area Engineer Kevin Zimmer said the state plans to begin a major overhaul of a section of Highway 183.

“We are going to begin the project just south of the interstate overpass,” Zimmer said. “Basically tie on where the new part of Vine ends and continue up north till just past 55th.”

The enhancement project will expand the highway from two lanes to four. North of 55th Street, the four lanes will taper back down to two.

“The project will create median islands on the highway that will probably look very similar to those currently on the north end of Vine,” Zimmer said.

While that particular project is planned for 2006, crews have already begun to rearrange utility poles that will be in the way.

This project will also include improving Mopar Drive, the short road west of the 4100 block of Highway 183.

“We are going to replace the temporary traffic signals at the entrance and exit ramps of the interstate,” Zimmer said. “And there is going to be a new traffic signal at 43rd on (Highway) 183.”

As this area grows, the Hays Public Works Department will pay close attention to traffic flow and driving habits. It will consider putting another traffic light at the intersection of Highway 183 and 48th Street if the need arises.

The 43rd Street traffic signal will be the first in a series of changes to entrances and exits of retail parking lots and access roads.

One of the first and most notable changes will be at the intersection of Highway 183 and 41st Street.

This intersection is planned to be turned into what is called a right in/right out only intersection. This means that traffic entering Highway 183 will only be permitted to turn north onto the highway.

Also, only northbound traffic on Highway 183 will be permitted to turn east onto 41st, which leads to the Home Depot development.

D.J. Christie Inc., the developer of the Home Depot project, has secured transportation district development bonds to cover the costs of the developer to build roadways to the development and parking lots.

The TDD bonds were issued temporarily by the city in the amount of $1.4 million to the developer who will self-impose an additional sales tax of 0.75 percent to goods sold in the development to pay the city back.

The TDD bonds are being used by the developer to work 41st Street, 43rd Street and Sherman Avenue.

Customers of the development who wish to travel south on Highway 183 back into Hays will be directed up to 43rd Street where the traffic signal will be located.

When KDOT begins the 2006 work on Highway 183 the intersection at 45th Street, the north entrance to Wal-Mart, is also slated to become a right in/right out only intersection.

Reporter Eric Norris can be reached at (785) 628-1081, ext. 143, or by e-mail at enorris@dailynews.net.