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Bypassed by the budget: U.S. 69 southern expansion not included in federal stimulus bill
A project to add 17 miles of additional two-lane highway to U.S. Highway 69 between Fort Scott and Arma will not receive any funding from a recent federal economic stimulus bill, Kansas Department of Transportation officials said Friday.
The U.S. 69 project, which would cost an estimated $68 million, is not one of the projects that will receive funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which will provide nearly $380 million to statewide transportation projects, KDOT officials said.
"There is not enough funding for that project," KDOT spokesman Stan Whitley said Friday. "They (projects) are criteria-based and that wasn't one of the projects we selected. That project (U.S. 69) didn't rank high enough and there was not enough stimulus funding available for us to pick that one. We wanted to go with projects that will give us the best bang for our buck."
Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson and KDOT Secretary Deb Miller announced on Friday new transportation projects designed to help create jobs, improve safety and encourage economic growth in Kansas.
"We know that building roads creates jobs," Parkinson said. "So it's good news that Kansas will receive nearly $380 million from the stimulus bill targeted for transportation projects. While the stimulus bill is not a long-term solution to our state's budget problems, it can spur long-term growth by putting Kansans back to work. These are important projects that will soon create thousands of jobs, enhance safety and sustain long-term economic growth."
Miller added, "We picked projects that will create jobs and have a major impact on our state's economy. These are game-changers that couldn't have been built in the foreseeable future without this one-time stimulus funding. These projects support the state's economic goals and will continue to do so for decades."
Based on estimates from the Federal Highway Administration, Kansas stands to gain more than 10,000 jobs from these projects.
KDOT recommendations for projects were based on input gathered during local consultation meetings in 2006 and 2008, and safety, economic and roadway condition factors, Whitley said.
While the U.S. 69 four-lane project will not receive any funds from the federal stimulus package, it could still potentially get started within a year, depending on funds available at the time, KDOT officials said.
Last month, the project was one of several projects that KDOT officials put on hold for at least one year due to funding uncertainties prior to the passage of the federal economic stimulus package. KDOT District Four Public Affairs Manager Priscilla Petersen said at the time that the U.S. 69 project "should be ready to go in one year" depending on the amount of funds made available to KDOT.
Petersen also said that not all of the transportation projects on KDOT's list would happen due to limited funds and the prioritization of projects to receive funding.
"We have to have the money in order to make them happen," she said. "We'd love to see them all done, but we can only do what we can pay for."
The major transportation projects identified by KDOT include:
* $98 million for U.S. 69 in Overland Park for the corridor from U.S. Interstate 35 to 103rd Street to address congestion issues and support economic development.
* $23 million for U.S. Interstate 135 and 47th Street in Wichita for the reconstruction and upgrade of the interchange to remove the bottleneck and to provide a link to an underutilized area.
* $11 million for Kansas Highway 23 in Gove County to enhance safety on 16 miles of a narrow, 50-year-old road that lacks shoulders and has steep side slopes, which creates a hazard for trucks hauling agricultural commodities and implements.
* $88 million for Kansas Highway 61 in McPherson County to expand a 15-mile corridor from two lanes to four. This will enhance safety and provide a critical link to the interstate system in south-central Kansas. This will also complete the final major Comprehensive Transportation Program commitment, for which funding fell short as a result of the economic downturn.
Kansas is also expected to receive an estimated $27 million that will be spent on urban transit projects throughout the state. Since last fall, KDOT planners had built a pool of about 230 projects -- estimated to cost about $1.3 billion -- that could be let to contract within six months to one year of the federal economic stimulus bill.
Additional projects and efforts identified by KDOT that are scheduled to receive federal stimulus dollars can be viewed online at www.ksdot.org.