A stretch of Monticello Road near Mill Valley High School in Shawnee will be closed for five days as city crews work on repairing damaged stormwater pipes.
Monticello Road at 60th Street is closed until Friday, Aug. 8, to complete emergency repairs to a failing underground pipe, said Doug Donahoo, Shawnee’s communication director.
Detours are marked by signs along Shawnee Mission Parkway, Woodland Drive and Johnson Drive. They will lead motorists to take Woodland Drive if they’re driving north. Those driving south will have to use Johnson Drive or Shawnee Mission Parkway, Donahoo said.
Heavy rains caused stormwater pipes to fail
Heavy rains that fell July 16 in Johnson County caused corrugated stormwater pipes at Monticello Road, which were already at the end of their 20- to 30-year lifespan, to fail, Donahoo said to the Johnson County Post.
“The heavy rainfall on July 16 caused a rapid deterioration of the pipe, leading to the formation of a sinkhole on Monticello Road,” Donahoo said.
The pipes were originally planned to be replaced this summer. Due to manufacturing delays, the city had moved its completion to summer 2026, with hopes that the pipes would last until then. Because of the pipes failing, the city is expediting those plans.
“Roadway plates were installed as an immediate safety measure, but delaying permanent repairs is no longer an option,” he said.
The project is funded by the city’s Parks and Pipes sales tax.
The sinkhole is unrelated to a separate sinkhole that had to be repaired on the Mill Valley High School campus in April, Donahoo said.
First day of school traffic won’t be affected
Over the next five days, the roadwork will include filling a void where the pipe failed with concrete, Donahoo said.
Shawnee city crews will remove the top layer of Monticello Road, fill in the void with concrete, and install a concrete patch on the roadway to provide a temporary driving surface for about the next, six weeks.
It will reopen by the weekend to not interfere with first-day-of-school traffic for Mill Valley High School, Monticello Trails Middle, or Clear Creek Elementary School, Donahoo said.
In mid- to late September, the road will close for three to four weeks as city crews install reinforced concrete boxes and replace the storm water pipe running underneath the road.
The City of Shawnee and USD 232 will provide additional information about the closure as it gets closer, Donahoo said.
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