ShawneeDispatch.com

The Kansas Department of Transportation announced today that with $257 million in cuts to the State Highway Fund, $86 million in projects it had planned for this year have been suspended.

Deb Miller, Kansas transportation secretary, said the suspension means eliminated jobs for both contractors and suppliers.

“The saving grace is that the federal Recovery Act will fund $112 million in new projects to be under way this summer,” she said in a news release. “We will also continue as planned with projects that involve federal and local dollars.”

With the cuts, the department reports that its construction spending for this year will be lower than it was in the 1970s when adjusted for inflation.

“Considering the winter that we’ve had, Kansans are going to see rougher pavement and more potholes, and we’re going to be very limited in our ability to address them,” Miller added in the release.

Projects that were suspended in Johnson County, and the state funds budgeted for them, were:

• Bridge deck overlay for Interstate 435 at Johnson Drive, $756,280.

• Resurfacing and repairs to Kansas Highway 10 in Johnson County beginning at limits of previous project near the east side of the interchange at Kansas Highway 7, then 4.73 miles east to the junction with I-435, $1 million.

• Resurfacing 3.5 miles of US Highway 69 from 159th Street north, $1.19 million.

• Resurfacing I-435 from K-10 north to 87th Street and from I-35 to Antioch, $6.4 million.

Projects administered through KDOT but also funded with federal and/or local government funds will continue. In Shawnee, this will include the second phase of the Clear Creek Trail and lighting replacement along I-435.

Near to Shawnee, projects that will continue include resurfacing in the area of downtown Merriam and resurfacing of Metcalf Avenue from Shawnee Mission Parkway to 75th Street.

The cuts also will not affect the construction of the interchange at Kansas Highway 7 and Johnson Drive, with is federally funded.

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