Despite a recent return to winter weather, the Kansas Turnpike Authority says it’s still on track for rebuilding the Emporia entrance to the turnpike.
“We’re staying fairly close to what the overall schedule is at this point,” said Rich Olson, the KTA’s project manager. “The primary thing right now is getting the detours constructed and finished.”
The KTA is trying to finish five detours before Christmas. Two are getting close — turnpike workers have been paving the ones that will handle eastbound and westbound traffic on Interstate 35. A third, covering the connection between I-35 and U.S. Highway 50 has its sub-base laid and will soon be ready for asphalt.
The last two, though, have further to go. Around the entry ramp to the turnpike and the stretch from westbound I-35 to the toll plaza, crews are still on the dirt work.
Once finished, the detours will let travel route around the turnpike work. The KTA plans to simplify the intersections near the Emporia entrance, in part by using two large roundabouts at the north and south ends of Graphic Arts Road. Presently, the entrance is served by a tangled crisscross of roads known locally as the “spaghetti bowl” because of how they look in aerial photos and on maps.
Even the promise of construction in the area has been enough to spark commercial interest. Developers have planned a 71-acre shopping area near the northern roundabout, and commercial zoning for a 35-acre tract near the southern roundabout is in the works.
“I think we’ve got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity here,” Laurent DeBauge, one of the people working to develop the northern property, said in October.
Meanwhile, there’s more going on than just detours. Work on the new southbound exit and entrance ramps is under way.
The turnpike has finished extending an old drainage structure — by 200 feet altogether — and has begun working on a new one. And in mid-to-late December, work will start on the mechanical and electrical tunnel for the new toll plaza.
“That tunnel will take at least a month, perhaps more,” Olson said.
And that’s not even all of Step One. During 2007, the KTA has a northern roundabout to build and two bridges to put up over it, along with one bridge over Graphic Arts to take down.
The whole first step of construction is scheduled to take 13 months from its late September starting point. After that, the work shifts to:
- Step Two: Tear down the existing on and off-ramps, put up a new bridge over the turnpike, rebuild the Graphic Arts bridge at I-35 and put up the southern roundabout. Estimated time: Eight months.
- Step Three: Build a small amount of pavement between the new plaza and the new bridge over the turnpike, along with the pavement that connects the new roundabouts. Some incidental removal of old ramps. Estimated time: Three months.
- Step Four: Remove the detours and some more of the old ramps. Estimated time: About a month.
For now, finishing the detours will satisfy Olson. And he’s still banking on hitting the right weather window.
“We’re seeing a long-term forecast for some weather next week that will let us finish the asphalt work,” Olson said.