By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
A fourth major traffic element has been added to the plan for improvements to the Hays North Vine Street corridor between 32nd and 41st Streets.
The project has been in development the past 12 months by the city’s consultant, WSP Engineers of Lenexa, the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) and city staff.
“Our engineers [WSP] hired another engineering firm to do an independent review of the whole plan just to make sure we got another set of eyes on it,” said Jacob Wood, assistant city manager.
The nationwide firm Kittelson & Associates specializes in transportation projects.
“One of the things that they recommended was that we put in what we’re calling the ‘teardrop’ on the south side of I-70.
“It’s not a full roundabout but what it will allow is traffic going eastbound to pull off of the interstate, go through the tear drop, and go directly north,” Wood explained.
“The old plan would have had them going south, and coming around the roundabout and then going north. This will make it a bit easier to come off the interstate and go north, if they want to do that.”
Traffic studies and modeling determined the teardrop would alleviate some of the congestion at the 37th Street roundabout.
“We looked at doing [a teardrop] on the north side of I-70 but there’s really not enough room to do it between the interstate and the intersection. So [westbound traffic] will still have to pull off the interstate and go north through the roundabout to then head south on Vine.”
Plans are to build two-lane traffic roundabouts at 32nd/33rd, 37th, and 41st Streets, plus the teardrop at the eastbound I-70 exit ramp.
Adding the teardrop increases the total project cost from an estimated $7.6 million to approximately $9 million.
In early December the city was awarded a $6 million federal grant from the Department of Transportation for the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) Grant program for the North Vine Street Corridor Project construction.
The remainder of the project cost will be paid through a two percent increase in the Transient Guest Tax (TGT). It went into effect Oct. 1 and is projected to raise $6.2 million over 20 years.
On January 9 city staff attended a meeting in Topeka with representatives from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and KDOT to discuss how the project is to be administered. KDOT will act as the pass-through agency in letting the bids and managing the project.
“We’ve had conference calls with them, both KDOT and Federal Highways, and will continue to do that as part of the process as it goes forward.
“Anytime you do a project of this magnitude on a state highway at the intersection of an interstate, you’re going to have those players involved anyway. But they’ll probably be a little bit more involved this go around [due to] the federal money.
Wood says the concept plan is now “pretty well refined.”
The city has been meeting with business owners along Vine Street throughout the corridor.
“We’ve been having conversations and, actually, some of those have resulted in changes to the plan. Those guys that work on Vine have the operator-level kind of knowledge that maybe city staff and engineers don’t see.
“For the most part, the meetings have been positive.”
The city will host a public meeting and open house Tue., Feb. 12, 5:30-7:30 p.m., at The Venue at Thirsty’s Brew Pub & Grill, 2704 Vine. Information will be presented about Vine Street corridor improvements, including the proposed roundabout solutions. Detailed models of proposed changes will be on display to show the capabilities of roundabouts and how they improve safety for vehicles and pedestrians.
“We’ll see if there’s any feedback that may require adjusting or tweaking the plan, and we’ll still be able to do that. But we’ll really start kicking on the design pretty heavy after next week.”
Utilizing the federal funds required a slight shift in the work timeline.
Design will continue until October or November. Once the design plan is finalized and approved, bids will be let with a construction start expected in the summer of 2020.
“It’s a long road and there are a lot of regulatory requirements, which we would have to deal with regardless of whether we got the federal dollars,” Wood added.