The Emporia City Commission has a short agenda this week with a series of road improvements near the Dolly Madison plant as the only items so far.
The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in the city commission chambers, 518 Mechanic St.
Commissioners will be asked to approve a $720,000 budget proposal to build left-turn lanes at the intersection of Industrial Road and 15th Avenue. The turn lanes would be for northbound and southbound traffic. Because of a state grant, $540,000 of the bill would be paid for by the Kansas Department of Transportation.
The commission will also approve bids for a realignment of the Dolly Madison entrance and will consider signing off on a slight change to the right-turn lanes recently built at 15th and Industrial for east-west traffic. The change affects the storm water drains, where workers had to replace 15-inch pipe with 18-inch pipe.
“That was something we didn’t have a choice of doing,” said City Engineer Keith Beatty. The change cost about $1,100.
The low bid on the realignment work came from APAC-Kansas Shears Division at $38,471. The project is slated to begin in spring and will realign Dolly’s north entrance to line up with the entrance to the nearby Flinthills Mall.
“We’ve had some safety issues where Dolly employees and people going to the mall have to cross paths with some funny spacing,” Beatty said.
Traffic at the intersection became a priority when the former Modine plant nearby was rezoned for commercial use. At that time, management at the Dolly Madison plant said it had concerns about the increased traffic a commercial site would bring in an area where the company’s semi trucks already had little room to maneuver.