|
|
|
PITTSBURG —
Gov. Sam Borwnback was in Pittsburg for about a half an hour this week. The news he brought was great, but not necessarily in the way many people believe.
Much of the talk at the announcement was about a four-lane U.S. Highway 69 from Kansas City to Pittsburg.
“My dad said that he’d probably never see it in his lifetime. It looks like it might happen now,” said Pittsburg City Commissioner Rudy Draper.
With respect to Draper’s father, Brownback’s announcement did not have anything to do with that stretch, but that stretch is almost already set in stone.
By 2020, there will be a four-lane U.S. 69 from Kansas City to Arma, and then from Arma to Pittsburg. The only issue is a six-mile swing around Arma called the Arma Connection that will likely be about $18-$20 million.
This week, Brownback and KDOT officials said they would work hard to find the construction funds to build that section, likely around the same time as the T-WORKS project, which will make U.S. 69 from Fort Scott to Arma a four-lane road. It is an expectation the Arma Connection will be built in conjunction with that project.
So what was Brownback’s announcement really about?
It wasn’t about the future bypass from north of Arma, west of Pittsburg to the Crawford-Cherokee county line. The preliminary engineering (design work, right-of-way identification, various studies) is already done or in the works for that. The next steps there are construction funds, which will run in the nine figures. It’s a massive undertaking, and the Arma Connection is much cheaper, financially speaking, than trying to build bridges, off-ramps and new freeways.
Brownback’s announcement was about Cherokee County. It’s about the stretch from the U.S. 400/166 intersection to the Crawford County line. It’s not construction funds, so it’s not like it will be built soon. The announcement was about preliminary engineering.
Why is this so important? Cherokee County was always the least developed section of U.S. 69 between Kansas City and its ultimate goal: Interstate 44. With preliminary engineering, it could turn this section from a lifetime or more away to a realistic possibility within that lifetime. It will put the stretch in a position so all it will need is construction funds.
That’s not to say this will come quickly or easily. Hundreds of millions of dollars aren’t just sitting around. It will take decades to get the construction funds, it will be broken into multiple sections and it will take years of lobbying by and efforts of legislators.
Gov. Sam Borwnback was in Pittsburg for about a half an hour this week. The news he brought was great, but not necessarily in the way many people believe.
Much of the talk at the announcement was about a four-lane U.S. Highway 69 from Kansas City to Pittsburg.
“My dad said that he’d probably never see it in his lifetime. It looks like it might happen now,” said Pittsburg City Commissioner Rudy Draper.
With respect to Draper’s father, Brownback’s announcement did not have anything to do with that stretch, but that stretch is almost already set in stone.
By 2020, there will be a four-lane U.S. 69 from Kansas City to Arma, and then from Arma to Pittsburg. The only issue is a six-mile swing around Arma called the Arma Connection that will likely be about $18-$20 million.
This week, Brownback and KDOT officials said they would work hard to find the construction funds to build that section, likely around the same time as the T-WORKS project, which will make U.S. 69 from Fort Scott to Arma a four-lane road. It is an expectation the Arma Connection will be built in conjunction with that project.
So what was Brownback’s announcement really about?
It wasn’t about the future bypass from north of Arma, west of Pittsburg to the Crawford-Cherokee county line. The preliminary engineering (design work, right-of-way identification, various studies) is already done or in the works for that. The next steps there are construction funds, which will run in the nine figures. It’s a massive undertaking, and the Arma Connection is much cheaper, financially speaking, than trying to build bridges, off-ramps and new freeways.
Brownback’s announcement was about Cherokee County. It’s about the stretch from the U.S. 400/166 intersection to the Crawford County line. It’s not construction funds, so it’s not like it will be built soon. The announcement was about preliminary engineering.
Why is this so important? Cherokee County was always the least developed section of U.S. 69 between Kansas City and its ultimate goal: Interstate 44. With preliminary engineering, it could turn this section from a lifetime or more away to a realistic possibility within that lifetime. It will put the stretch in a position so all it will need is construction funds.
That’s not to say this will come quickly or easily. Hundreds of millions of dollars aren’t just sitting around. It will take decades to get the construction funds, it will be broken into multiple sections and it will take years of lobbying by and efforts of legislators.
But it means it can be done. It means that while Draper’s father will likely see U.S. 69 four-lane from Kansas City to Pittsburg in his lifetime, Draper could see U.S. 69 four-lane to Interstate 44 in his. That couldn’t have been said with any sense of realism before this week.
A four-lane U.S. 69 has always been a sort of mirage in the distance, It’s been a dream more than anything. But with every announcement, every dollar assigned to the project, the vision gets a little less blurry and a little more clear. And that’s what Brownback’s announcement truly means: clarity.
— for The Morning Sun
