Part of 95th Street in northern Overland Park is closed for the foreseeable future to allow the final part of a multi-year, four-phase stormwater improvement project to proceed.

As of last week, 95th Street is closed near Moody Park Drive (east of Switzer Road) so crews can replace aging stormwater infrastructure that runs below the street. The closure is expected to last until Nov. 12.

The work is key to reducing the risk of flooding in an area that has had a history of houses flooding in the past, said Adam Alani, project manager and city civil engineer.

During the closure, drivers are encouraged to divert to 103rd Street, since the nearby neighborhood streets can’t accommodate the kind of traffic 95th Street usually sees each day.

What’s happening at 95th Street?

Overland Park plans to replace something called a reinforced concrete box culvert, which helps move water through a bigger stormwater infrastructure system.

In order to do that, Alani said 95th Street needed to be closed in the area because the culvert in question runs beneath the street.

So, crews removed a chunk of the road to access the old culvert. Then, they’re taking out the culvert to replace it with a bigger one, before covering it and repaving the road. At the same time, they’ll be replacing some of the other stormwater infrastructure, like the inlets.

All told, this final phase is expected to cost about $8.5 million.

To get around the stormwater work on 95th Street, drivers should follow the posted detour, which points drivers toward 103rd Street, which can take you to Quivira Road or Antioch Road to get back to 95th Street.

Entire project intended to reduce flooding in the area

This slate of work is part of a series of stormwater improvement projects concentrated around 95th Street in the past decade or so. Taken together, Alani said they’re meant to reduce the risk of flooding and take some homes out of the floodplain.

“The goal of it is really to improve public safety around flooding,” he said.

A floodplain is an area that may flood or already has, per the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Homes that fall in a floodplain must have special flood insurance, but through engineering and infrastructure upgrades, properties can be removed from the floodplain.

This area of northern Overland Park has seen flooding in the past, with some reports of home flooding, Alani said.

“Whenever that happens, that’s something that the city takes very seriously,” he said.

95th Street closure could be “inconvenient” for some

Councilmember Drew Mitrisin, who lives in and represents this area of the city, said he knows this all can “be a little inconvenient for people,” especially since 95th Street is an important thoroughfare for traffic in northern Overland Park.

“I know that it’s going to impact just anybody who’s a frequent user of 95th Street for sure,” he said.

Mitrisin also said he knows there might be a fair bit of “construction fatigue” in this area that’s seen some neighborhood street reconstructions, 69Express and other big construction projects in the past few years.

“A lot of our streets were built in the ’50s and ’60s, and so were our sewer ditches and our storm drains, and all of those are kind of coming up for … repair at the same time,” he said. “Hopefully, people can bear with us and be patient as we continue to rebuild a lot of this aging infrastructure.”

Keep reading: Overland Park moves closer to trash system overhaul as key details remain up in air