On Wednesday, the Kansas Turnpike Authority will celebrate its 50th birthday. Meanwhile, Emporia’s part of it is laying the groundwork for the next 50 years.
In about a month, or maybe a bit more, the KTA should have its detours around the Emporia interchange ready to go. Then it can turn to the big project: untangling the net of intersections and cross-connections known locally as “the spaghetti bowl.” If everything goes to plan, the smoothed-out interchange should be finished by Nov. 15, 2008.
It’s already got a head start. The signal to start work came on Sept. 18, well in advance of the original Oct. 9 start date. Now project manager Rich Olson is hoping the high energy continues.
“This is exciting,” Olson said. “These are challenging projects, but they’re fun ones to do.”
Fifty years ago, he might have almost been talking about the turnpike itself.
No taxes, please
The turnpike started as a compromise. In the 1950s, some Kansans had begun proposing a four-lane highway that would link the big three of Topeka, Kansas City and Wichita, and boost the state’s economy into the bargain. But western Kansas legislators considered it literal highway robbery, with tax money going to a road they might never drive.
Back then, each county had one vote. That meant rural legislators could block any attempt by the state to fund the project. So, as an end run, proponents suggested an independent turnpike authority, which would sell revenue bonds to pay for construction costs and then charge a toll on the road once built. Should the turnpike fail, the state had no responsibility for the debt.
“If we went bankrupt, we went bankrupt,” former turnpike Chief Engineer Rod Fogo told the KTA’s oral history 50th anniversary project. “It was our problem. We had to be really very careful, budget-wise, to be sure that we weren’t getting into any kind of difficulties — like spending too much!”
Construction started Dec. 31, 1954 and finished Oct. 25, 1956, a total of 22 months. According to the KTA, the turnpike served 600,000 customers in its first three months. By contrast, in the first nine months of this year, more than 24 million vehicles have traveled the turnpike.
In 1966, a bypass at Emporia connected the turnpike with Interstate Highway 35. But since the interchange already had connections with U.S. Highway 50, the various roads ended up taking some creative twists and bends to make everything fit.
“When you look at all the connections that had to be made, it is pretty amazing,” Olson said.
But within the last couple of years, the KTA decided the time had come to straighten out the maze with some help from the city government and the Kansas Department of Transportation. With luck, and a pair of roundabouts, spaghetti would soon be off the menu.
Step by step
A lot has to happen to do that. And like many big construction projects, the work is front-end loaded. About 60 percent of the work that needs to be done, Olson estimated, will be done in that first 13-month step.
That step starts by building four detours to reroute traffic until the project is done (see map), each one connecting a different point on the interstate to a point on U.S. 50 or vice versa. Then work can get under way on the new plaza and the roads leading up to it, particularly on a new set of entrance and exit ramps for northbound and southbound traffic. Also during step one, the KTA will work on the north half of all the U.S. 50 improvements, from Overlander Road to Graphic Arts Road, along with a north roundabout and two new bridges over it.
Roundabouts have been a touchy word for Emporia in the past. A city-built one near Emporia High School proved more expensive than expected and had critics saying it was too big a project for an intersection that only sees traffic problems twice a day, Proponents said roundabouts, a circular intersection, were inherently safer because they reduced the possibility of a T-bone collision between the front of one car and the side of another.
For the KTA, roundabouts are the most direct way to shuttle traffic from one road to another without risking an accident somewhere in between. Two are planned for the interchange, one to the north and one to the south. Both will be two-lane roads and bigger than the EHS roundabout.
From there, the project moves to:
- Step two: (estimated at eight months) Start tearing down existing ramps. Start building a new bridge over the turnpike and rebuild the Graphic Arts bridge over I-35. A bridge over Graphic Arts is slated to be removed in June, before step one has completely finished.
“Once the new pavement is completed, we won’t have enough clearance there,” Olson said. “We’ll have to take it out.”
Step two also entails the improvements along the south half of U.S. 50, including work on the southern roundabout.
- Step three: (About three months) 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.
- Step four: (About a month) Remove the detours and some more of the old ramps.
All the times listed are estimates by Olson. When done, the new interchange will have eight lanes.
Not only should the changes make things safer and easier, Olson said, but it could act as an economic spur.
“There’s a lot interest in development in that part of town.” he said.
Will this see Emporia through to the 100th anniversary? Olson laughed when asked.
“I’m not sure anyone’s got a crystal ball that sees that far in advance,” he said.
The KTA will celebrate the anniversary Wednesday with an event for dignitaries, invited guests and those with special ties to the KTA’s history.