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File Photo
Wayne White | Managing Editor
TOPEKA—Approximately $2 million in federal stimulus funds
will be used to replace an old railroad bridge with a pedestrian
bridge across U.S. Highway 75, state officials said Tuesday.
According to Clay Adams, Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT)
district engineer, the project to remove the bridge north of Lyndon
was given final approval Tuesday.
Confirmation of the project’s approval by Kansas Secretary
of Transportation Deb Miller was issued late Tuesday in a KDOT press
release, which said approximately $11.4 million will be used to
fund 14 statewide transportation enhancement projects through the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).
State Senator Anthony Hensley said he had been working to have the
bridge removed for about 10 years, and was happy the project had
finally been approved.
“They understand the safety issues involved with such a narrow
overpass there,” Hensley said Tuesday.
The bridge is part of the rail-banked Missouri Pacific line, portions
of which are being developed by the Kanza Rails to Trails Conservancy
(KRTC) as hiking, biking and horseback trails. KRTC has developed
several miles of the trail near Vassar. As proposed by KRTC, the
bridge will provide access over the highway for trail users heading
west toward Osage City once the trail is developed further.
Hensley said the old bridge created a hazard for oversize loads
on U.S. 75.
“We need to knock out that overpass and widen that bottleneck,”
Hensley said. “It’s particularly an issue with wind
turbines out of Oklahoma headed north. I’m very pleased we’re
finally able to get this accomplished.”
“The main reason for doing this is to open up this stretch
of highway so we don’t have a narrow restriction,” Adams
said. “With this bridge out of there, it opens up a better
gateway for loads from Oklahoma to Nebraska.”
Adams and other KDOT officials met with the Osage County Commission
Oct. 1 to present the results of a study of the bridge, after county
officials cited dangerous conditions on U.S. 75 and asked if the
bridge could be removed. A recommendation of the study was to construct
an arch pedestrian bridge 187 feet long at a cost of approximately
$1.5 million including removal of the bridge, columns and abutments.
The cost to relocate a nearby residence was estimated at $225,000.
At that time, officials said it could be years before the bridge
was removed due to lack of state funds for such projects.
Adams said the approved project will likely be the same as previously
recommended. He said the project was included in ARRA at KDOT’s
request.
“I think the cities and county made a good case for correcting
this bottleneck on this highway,” he said.
The survey conducted in conjunction with the study helped expedite
its inclusion in the stimulus program, Adams said, and additional
survey work has been done in recent weeks.
“We knew this project was a possibility and if it was successful,
we had to get started on it quickly,” he said.
He said the bridge project would be on “a pretty tight timeline,”
noting funds must be obligated before the end of the year.
According to KDOT’s press release, the Kansas projects were
selected for inclusion in its transportation enhancement program
for federal fiscal years 2009-2010. KDOT received 101 applications
from local units of government for consideration of funding, totaling
more than $110 million.
Transportation enhancement projects under the federal program fall
into three major categories – historic, pedestrian and bicycle,
and scenic and environmental.
“The transportation enhancement program provides federal highway
funds for projects that strengthen the cultural, aesthetic or environmental
value of our transportation system,” said Miller . |
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