ShawneeDispatch.com

Accessibility will be severely limited once construction of a new interchange starts, so businesses near the intersection of Kansas Highway 7 and Johnson Drive are asking for the state’s help.

Officials with Kansas Department of Transportation had a special meeting with businesses representatives on March 3 to discuss how work on the interchange would affect access to businesses and how the department would try to help. Business owners expressed frustration they weren’t aware construction was moving ahead until recently and that the state had not done more to help them once it did.

State officials told the business owners it appeared the first day access at Johnson Drive and K-7 would be closed would be March 22, and access may be closed through most of the first two phases of construction, projected to end in June 2011. They explained they had taken several measures to try to expedite construction.

“Every decision and everything we’ve looked at has been focused on getting Johnson Drive open faster,” said Amy Pope, construction engineer on the project.

KDOT officials said they would place directional signage for the detours to businesses, provide businesses with detour maps to give to customers and use the e-mail list created from the Feb. 18 public meeting about the interchange to disseminate information. They said they were also investigating advertising possibilities to help make people aware of how to access businesses.

But many business owners at the meeting from the Woodsonia West shopping center were concerned that until the city was able to finish Silverheel Road to Clear Creek Parkway, the only way to access eastern Johnson Drive from K-7 would be from far north at 47th Street to Silverheel and Woodsonia or from the far south at Shawnee Mission Parkway to Monticello Road.

City officials reported the Silverheel connection should be completed Aug. 1.

Brian Costello, co-owner of Primp My Pup, said those detours were too far out of the way when several of the businesses had easily-accessible competition elsewhere.

“You’ve lost half your customers almost overnight, because customers have to drive a three-mile loop to get to you,” he said. “You’re giving five to eight of these businesses a death sentence when you close that road.”

Many said that since the interchange had been in the planning stages for the last 10 years, they thought the state should have had a better plan in place for business access.

Representatives from Security Bank noted the construction contract from the project had come in several million dollars less than projected, so money should be available to construct more temporary access. But Howard Lubliner, KDOT project manager, said with a federally-funded project, excess funds already may have been assigned to another project or used for a project that came in over budget.

Tyler Anderson, owner of Blue Sky Cleaners, said he was frustrated KDOT didn’t let individual businesses know construction was moving forward. While the state awarded the construction contract in November, he didn’t learn about it until February, only giving him a month’s notice that the project would begin.

“That sets a bad tone in my mind for how the rest of this is going to go,” he said.

Business owners asked about the possibility of temporary access roads in different locations, and KDOT officials said they would re-examine the matter. Doug Wesselschmit, city engineer, warned that it could take just as much time to design and construct temporary access as it would for the city to complete the Silverheel connection.

Business owners also expressed frustration the Silverheel connection had not been constructed well in advance and asked if the construction could be expedited.

City officials explained the road was funded through a benefit district, and the time it took to get property owners in the district to sign a petition had delayed the project.

They said they would work with the contractor to see if construction could be completed earlier, but the road would require areas of infill that would need time to settle before construction.

“I think Aug. 1 is about as good as we can get,” said Paul Lindstrom, city project engineer.

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