The long-anticipated $200 million Santa Fe Street and Interstate 35 corridor improvements in Olathe will require some significant land acquisition.
That’s based on the most recent draft of the engineering map recently obtained by the Post, which highlights commercial properties that may have to go in order to make space for the upgrades.
“The City of Olathe will soon begin working individually with each tenant and business owner regarding the land acquisition piece of the Santa Fe/I-35 project,” said Cody Kennedy, the city’s chief communications officer, in an email.
What properties are likely to be affected?
- Currently, all potential land acquisition would occur east of I-35, but nothing is set in stone.
- The most recent map shows that a lot of the land acquisition is expected to occur on either side of Santa Fe, between Clairborne Road and Lindenwood Drive.
- Additionally, acquisition will be required on the east side of Lindenwood as well as near Loula Street and Rogers Road.
- Olathe has also identified a parcel at the northeast corner of Mur-Len Road and Santa Fe that it may need to acquire. For now, that’s considered tentative.
What’s planned for Santa Fe, I-35 corridor?
- Olathe intends to add extra lanes on both sides of I-35 in the two-mile stretch between Santa Fe and 119th Street to cut down on fast-paced merging.
- At I-35 and Santa Fe, a new single-point urban interchange — like the interchange at 87th Street and I-35 — will be added, which aims to funnel traffic on and off the freeway more quickly than a traditional diamond interchange.
- Rogers Road is also expected to cross under Santa Fe.
- Santa Fe’s intersections with Winchester Street and Lindenwood will get traffic signals too.
- Finally, the city has identified some more general corridor improvements between Mur-Len and Ridgeview Road.
Next steps:
- The map — and what private property Olathe may have to acquire for the corridor improvements — is still “subject to change,” Kennedy stressed.
- In the meantime, he said Olathe has already started talking to landowners and tenants that could be impacted, way ahead of its typical timeline for infrastructure-related property acquisitions.
- Looking ahead, project design for the Santa Fe and I-35 corridor improvements is just over halfway done as of April.
- If all goes to plan, Olathe expects to start construction in 2027. That would put the end date in 2029.
Keep reading: ‘Biggest project we’ve ever had’ — Olathe plans $200M to upgrade one of its busiest traffic areas
