Some overnight closures are planned on U.S. Highway 69 through Overland Park this weekend, with more planned in the future, as crews do some finishing touches to new toll lanes.

The first slate of closures will affect southbound US-69 between Interstate 435 and College Boulevard. That stretch of the highway will be “fully closed,” according to a Kansas Department of Transportation alert, from:

• 7 p.m. on Friday to 10 a.m. on Saturday,
• and again from 7 p.m. on Saturday to 10 a.m. on Sunday.

During each closure, drivers going south on US-69 will have to use the I-435/103rd Street ramp to exit, with posted detour signs directing drivers back to the southbound side of the highway.

Additional closures are planned through Tuesday, KDOT says, though details are not yet available. Check KDOT’s alert page for updates as they become available.

Short-term closures are part of the 69Express wrap-up

KDOT’s news alert says the closures are happening so crews can do some bridge and pavement leveling work tied to 69Express, the new toll lanes that opened up on the highway earlier this year.

That multiyear project was substantially completed in late February, when the express toll lanes opened and major construction efforts wrapped up on new bridges and other improvement work.

However, earlier this year, KDOT officials warned that additional short-term closures might still be necessary between 103rd and 167th streets into the spring for finishing touches.

That work was expected to include tasks such as smoothing out rough patches of pavement and would occur primarily during off-peak hours.

“I would kind of characterize it as nothing long-term,” said Steve Rockers, project director for KDOT, in January.

69Express brought $572M in improvements to congested highway

US-69 is considered the busiest four-lane highway in the state of Kansas, according to KDOT’s assessments, carrying some 90,000 vehicles a day through Overland Park.

Past studies showed that most of that congestion was happening north of 159th Street, and that the general crash rate was well above the statewide average before construction began.

At the same time, many of the bridges, pavement and other infrastructure on and touching U.S. Highway 69 were pushing 50 years old back in 2021, putting the highway on the short list of needed upgrades around the state.

Instead of a traditional widening to three lanes in both directions, city and state officials decided to implement the first express toll lane in Kansas while also doing additional highway improvements.

The project took about three years, $572 million and thousands of hours of construction work to accomplish.

Keep reading: US-69 toll lanes are open in Overland Park. Here’s how they work.