Editor’s Note: A response from the Kansas Department of Transportation has been added.
Ongoing construction in Shawnee on the bridge at Midland Drive and Interstate 435 is causing major problems for foot traffic at businesses near the juncture.
Since the lengthy construction project started in late June, the I-435 underpass bridge on Midland Drive has been blocked off, as well as some I-435 ramps.
“The northbound and southbound I-435 bridges over Midland Drive are more than 40 years old, and the bridge decks are nearing the end of their service life, in need of replacement,” Delaney Tholen, public affairs manager for the Kansas Department of Transportation, stated in an email to the Johnson County Post.
This has squeezed both vehicle and foot traffic in the normally busy corridor of the city that includes restaurants, hotels and a movie theater.
“(Business) dropped 40% the first week of construction,” Matt McQueeny, co-owner of the breakfast restaurant Rize N Shine, said. “It was absolutely crazy.”
The project will last for more than a year
The $9.5 million project will make improvements to the I-435 bridge over Midland Drive.
The project is slated to cause disruptions in that area of western Shawnee until November 2025, with a three-month winter break planned from December to March.
Until the December break, certain roads will be closed, including:
- Westbound Midland Drive at Renner Road
- Eastbound Midland Drive at Elmridge Road
- Southbound I-435 to the Midland Drive exit ramp (traffic on Shawnee Mission Parkway will have access to the exit at Midland Drive)
Business owners say they were given short notice
Blaming a lack of communication from the city of Shawnee and the Kansas Department of Transportation, business owners said they weren’t given enough time to prepare for the extensive closures.
“We were pretty much notified four days before things happened,” Kevin Collins, general manager at Barley’s Kitchen and Tap, said. “We had no idea it was happening or we would have put it in our budget.”
Having recently opened Rize N Shine in June in the old Eggtc. space, McQueeny said he was “blown away” about the lack of notice.
“You’ve got a multimillion dollar project that is going to impact businesses,” he said. “How in the world, six months in advance, did the city and KDOT not let the business owners know and meet with them and discuss what the project is going to look like? And then let the business owners tell them the repercussions to their businesses.”
KDOT defends its communication with local businesses, Delaney Tholen, public affairs manager for the Kansas Department of Transportation, stated in an email to the Johnson County Post.
“KDOT has communicated individually with business owners and operators, and recently met with a group to discuss the project,” she stated. “KDOT supports local efforts to promote area establishments while construction is taking place.”
Midland Drive is an important corridor in Shawnee
The area at Midland Drive and Renner Road, just east of I-435, is considered an entertainment district in Shawnee with the B&B Theatres Shawnee 18 cinema, as well as a retail plaza with restaurants like Minsky’s Pizza to Bar West to Chen’s Kitchen.
In addition, other restaurants like Paulo and Bill Restaurant and Jose Pepper’s, hotels like Hampton Inn and Fairfield Inn and spas and physicians like Horizons Spa and Wellness and Swickard Chiropractic dot the area.
Since the businesses started feeling the effects of the bridge construction, they’ve been getting together to figure out solutions.
“We’ve got a lot of the businesses on an email chain and we’ve had some meetings,” Collins of Barley’s Kitchen and Tap said. “I think that we’re all brainstorming and trying to think of the best options and how we attack things.”
In July, business owners, the city and KDOT representatives met several times to discuss where communication fell apart and solutions for moving forward.
During those talks, emotions ran high at times, McQueeny said.
“It got pretty contentious because people’s businesses are in jeopardy,” he said.
Business owners are justified in their anger, Doug Donahoo, Shawnee’s communication director, told the Johnson County Post.
“I think their concerns are valid,” he said. “I think that anytime you suffer this amount of hit to the bottom line, whatever concerns they have are perfectly reasonable.”
Shawnee leaders now trying to help
The city and Shawnee Chamber of Commerce will launch a campaign next week rebranding the area off of Midland Road as “The Midland Entertainment District.”
As part of the effort, signs will be placed at busy intersections throughout the city, like Shawnee Mission Parkway and Lackman and Maurer roads, advertising the area and pointing out how to get there.
“It’s to show folks how they can get there without necessarily having to rely on GPS or having to rely on the official detours as they’re marked by the road construction,” Donahoo said.
The Chamber is also trying to meet with business owners monthly to get feedback and input on what they need.
“We’re trying to meet with them regularly, probably, once or twice a month,” Ann Smith-Tate, president of the Shawnee Chamber of Commerce, said. “(We want) to make sure that we’re doing our best to push the narrative out there that these are important businesses to the Shawnee area.”
Businesses are getting by with help
While business owners in the corridor sometimes view each other as competition, they’re coming together during this time.
“As a group of businesses, we sort of fight over the same dollars,” McQueeny said. “But the synergy between the businesses has been really good trying to help each other.”
Hotels in the area have also been a big help.
“The hotels are directing their people to our restaurants,” McQueeny added. “I mean, we got a nice little corridor. We’ve got breakfast, lunch and entertainment in the evening.”
KDOT will continue to work with the city to deliver timely notifications about construction progress and detour updates, Tholen stated.
From the Chamber’s perspective, the important thing is that these businesses survive because they’re part of the fabric of the community.
“These are the same businesses that everyone goes to donate to the Boy Scouts, and school carnivals and all that kind of stuff,” Smith-Tate, the Shawnee Chamber president, said. “We hope that, in turn, our community supports them and keeps them going through this time.”
Go deeper: Lengthy project to improve I-435 bridge in Shawnee begins — What drivers should know
