Shawnee appears likely to proceed with long-awaited improvements along Midland Drive between Shawnee Mission Parkway and I-435 but scaled-down from initial proposals.
On Monday, the Shawnee City Council during their council committee meeting took an unofficial poll, which suggests the majority of the council prefers a design alternative that would feature bike lanes, curb and gutter improvements and a set of sidewalks.
If ultimately approved, that would cost roughly $8.8 million, with the city on the hook to pay about $6.5 million and Johnson County likely to kick in another $2 million.
“I see this as the most dangerous, highly traveled road in Shawnee,” Councilmember Kurt Knappen said. “We’ve got to move forward here on something.”
City may forego federal funds for the project
- Initial designs for the project featured four-foot bike lanes on either side of the street, a single 10-foot paved shared-use path and six feet of green space dividing the path from the road.
- The council, in February, unofficially rejected that plan in order to better preserve several homeowners’ property lines.
- Those plans would have cost upwards of $12 million, with about $4 million coming from the federal government through the MidAmerica Regional Council.
- In paring back the project design, the council could potentially forgo some or all of that federal money previously earmarked for the improvements.
New Midland plans mix transportation types
- If it gets the greenlight, the new Midland plan would keep the 11-foot lanes for traffic and replace the ditches on either side of the road with two feet of curb and gutter improvements.
- There would also be two four-foot bike lanes, possibly on either side of the road or stacked together on one side of the road, and five feet of sidewalk, likely on the north side.
- All said, these improvements would be roughly 45 feet wide and sit about 37 feet away from the nearest home.
There are still other options on the table
- Though there seems to be a general consensus on how to proceed with Midland Drive, nothing is final at this point.
- Other proposals envision trails instead of sidewalks, wider bike lanes or no bike lanes at all and more configurations. Those also vary in cost and have different levels of impact on nearby residents.
- Councilmember Tony Gillette said he’d prefer an option with no bike lanes, which would be cheaper and put more space between Midland and the nearest home.
- Knappen and Councilmember Jill Chalfie indicated they wouldn’t be interested in an option without a designated bike lane.
Next steps:
- Now, city staff will take these preliminary plans to the MidAmerica Regional Council to see if they could potentially still qualify for any available federal dollars.
- It’s not certain whether the project as proposed will be eligible for any, deputy public works director Kevin Manning warned.
- If federal funds are still available, the city council will be asked to accept or reject them, which would likely come with a formal approval of the designs.
- If not, the council will have to make a final decision on which option for Midland Drive they’d like to proceed with and how they’ll pay for any extra expenses.
- Actual work on the project isn’t expected to start until 2025.
Keep reading: Shawnee may skip $4M in fed funds for Midland Drive project
