Plans to improve a 16.5-mile stretch of Kansas Highway 10 and ease traffic congestion through a growing part of Johnson County have passed a crucial step, allowing the project to move forward.
The Kansas Department of Transportation announced earlier this summer that the K-10 Corridor Capacity Improvements plan, a $1.2 billion project along K-10 highway, has received the required approval from the Federal Highway Administration.
As traffic is expected to increase in the next three decades, receiving federal approval allows the project to now move into the design phase.
KDOT announced in late June that the federal agency gave the project a “Finding of No Significant Impact” in its Environmental Assessment, a study that identifies and considers potential impacts to the environment in the area of a proposed project. Projects must pass it before they can move on to the next steps.
“Receiving the Finding of No Significant Impact decision document was a critical milestone because it was required before KDOT could advance any aspect of the project,” Delaney Tholen, public affairs manager for the Kansas Department of Transportation, stated in an email to the Johnson County Post.
The project stretches across K-10 Highway from the Johnson and Douglas county lines to Interstate 435 in Johnson County and includes De Soto, Lenexa and Olathe.
With that federal approval, the project will now enter into the design phase. No timeline has been set for that section of the project and no funding has been secured for construction.
“The K-10 Corridor Capacity Improvements Project will be constructed in phases, so the design and construction schedule is not yet established,” Tholen said.
The project would add a third lane each way
As more traffic is expected to come through the K-10 Corridor over the next three decades, the highway as it is currently built will be unable to handle it, according to KDOT.
“The corridor insufficiently meets current and future mobility needs, resulting in worsening safety, reliability and congestion. There is also a need to provide transportation improvements that offer long-term sustainability and flexibility for all users,” according to a KDOT open house presentation.
To accommodate that, the proposed plans include widening the roadway by building a third lane in each direction.
KDOT also plans on adding a new tight diamond interchange at Lone Elm Road.
“The team’s analysis showed that adding an interchange at K-10 and Lone Elm, overall, it improved traffic operations across the network,” Steven Cross, KDOT’s project manager, said in April.
KDOT took public opinion over the past year
Over the past year, KDOT held three public input meetings, the last of which took place in April to primarily focus on the Lone Elm interchange. The public input sessions presented designs for the project and offered avenues for residents to provide input.
The feedback KDOT received will be factored into the design, Tholen said.
“Public and stakeholder feedback, (gathered) through various meetings, is considered in the design phase as KDOT evaluates engineering elements regarding traffic flow, safety and long-term mobility,” she said.
There will be more chances for the public to voice their opinion, Tholen added.
“KDOT values all input and will offer additional feedback opportunities as the project progresses,” she said.
In addition, KDOT will continue speaking with city leaders to get their input.
“Part of my job as a project manager is to figure out what the (city leaders’) needs are: What they don’t like, what their concerns are, and again, you got to balance all of that,” Steven Cross, KDOT’s project manager, said in April.
Lone Elm interchange has garnered pushback
One part of the design some Lenexa residents and Olathe city leaders are fearing is the proposed interchange a K-10 and Lone Elm Road.
Currently, K-10 breaks up Lone Elm Road, which curves into two different roads that run parallel to the highway — 102nd Terrace on the Lenexa side to the north, and 103rd Terrace on the Olathe side to the south.
On a recent weekday morning, Lenexa resident Alexis Guetzlaff walked down Lone Elm Road to point out where the proposed interchange would likely go and how she thinks it will affect residential neighborhoods nearby.
She has helped lead neighbors into protesting the interchange idea currently on the table. Guetzlaff and her neighbors prefer an overpass over an interchange because it would prevent semi-trucks and other cars from coming directly off the highway and entering their neighborhoods.
Hearing that the project was given a “Finding of No Significant Impact” was disappointing but not surprising, she said.
“We’re very disappointed,” she said. “I would also say that this process is exhausting, and we have made our dissatisfaction with the project very clear.”
The fears from neighbors, Guetzlaff said, include putting childrens’ safety at risk who are walking to Manchester Park Elementary School nearby in Olathe.
“We’ve got elementary schoolers from 5 to 11 walking to school along (100th Street) and they will need to cross Lone Elm. Right now, that is not a dangerous crossing, because there is very limited traffic there. And when we add in highway traffic, semi trucks, all sorts of traffic that is not associated with the school, we create a very, very big safety concern.”
Olathe city leaders raised alarm last fall for the addition of the interchange, concerned it would impact the safety of students walking to school.
In a request for comment about the project moving forward with the Lone Elm interchange as part of the plan, Mayor John Bacon provided the Post with the following statement:
“The City of Olathe looks forward to continued partnership as the K-10 corridor project continues. We appreciate the priority on the safety of the traveling public and neighboring school communities.”
Guetzlaff also worries about how the interchange could potentially separate neighborhoods, like Manchester Park and Stoneview, which are currently connected by Lone Elm Road and a trail that cuts across the street.
Whatever the design will be, she said, if there’s an interchange and not an overpass, she will continue fighting it.
“We’re continuing to have to try to keep that energy up,” she said.
Guetzlaff and more than two dozen other residents expressed their opposition to the K-10 project at a Lenexa City Council meeting in December. Mayor Julie Sayers reminded them that the project is already a part of the city’s Capital Improvement Program.
“The Lone Elm interchange is already a part of the city’s existing, adopted CIP and has been for many years,” she said at the meeting. “We are happy to hear your feedback, but please understand that this is already an approved project for the city. Nothing in the CIP changes that approval.”
Other cities respond
In hearing that the project is moving into the design phase, representatives for some of the cities that will be affected by it expressed optimism.
“Generally speaking, we think improved infrastructure is a net positive for all communities in Johnson County. We look forward to seeing the designs from the Department of Transportation,” Doug Donahoo, Shawnee’s communication director, wrote in an email to the Post.
While the work De Soto needed from KDOT is largely done, with the completion of the De Soto Local Road Improvements Project in 2024, Mayor Rick Walker and City Administrator Mike Brungardt said they’re open to more improvements on the highway.
“In terms of what’s needed right now today, they’ve already done it. KDOT widened some lanes on that looping inner interchange. They installed new traffic signals at the bottom of those. They’ve done all the improvements on Lexington Avenue,” Brungardt said. “They’ve already done the improvements that are needed. Now, next year, if something else big happens or two or three other big things happen (in De Soto), we may need to reassess.”
A representative for the City of Lenexa declined to comment for the story.
Go deeper: Overpass or interchange? KDOT and residents differ on what they want at K-10 and Lone Elm
