The Midland Drive Reconstruction Project will enter into a new phase on Monday, closing down a section of the road for at least one month.
On Monday, the $12.4 million project will enter into Phase 3, where it will fully close the road from Ogg Road to the west side entrance of Red Oak Drive and the Tomahawk Hills Golf Course. The east side entrance will still be accessible.
The project is intended to widen and modernize the stretch of road from Shawnee Mission Parkway to I-435. Construction began in March.
While the project was originally intended to finish in November, Public Works Director Kevin Manning said it will likely wrap in mid-December, depending on the weather.
“We’re working hard to try to get everything wrapped up by the end of the year,” Public Works Director Kevin Manning said at a city council meeting last month.
The project started on Shawnee Mission Drive
Phase 3 is considered the “halfway point of the project,” Manning said, where they will be rebuilding the intersection at Ogg Road and Midland Drive.
The city will be working with Johnson County Park and Recreation District because the road serves as a secondary access point to Shawnee Mission Park. In addition, it may affect traffic to the Tomahawk Hills Golf Course.
“While the work will affect traffic going into Tomahawk Hills Golf Course, we don’t expect any meaningful disruption to our patrons and look forward to the completion of the Midland improvements,” Kellen Jenkins, marketing and communications manager for JCPRD, said in an email to the Johnson County Post.
While they are laying asphalt, Manning said work is expected to experience some utility delays with WaterOne.
“WaterOne has faced some of those unexpected challenges with relocating water mains as necessary. We’re staying in constant communication with WaterOne and those crews as they work,” Doug Donahoo, Shawnee communications manager, said in an email to the Johnson County Post.
During the city council meeting, Manning said the city is doing everything it can to keep the project on track.
“We’re approaching a point where our contractor is going to have to slow down and wait for WaterOne, which we want to avoid at all possible. But we’re still working through those things right now,” Manning said.
The project began on June 19 on the west side of the road near Shawnee Mission Parkway and has since moved east.
The project will modernize Midland Drive
Discussed by Shawnee’s governing body for several years, the project’s final plan was approved by the Shawnee City Council in December 2025.
Beyond widening the roads, the project also includes updating the roadway to modern standards to include:
- Two 11-foot-wide lanes for traffic
- A 5-foot sidewalk on the north side of the road
- A stormwater system
- Streetlights
- 4-foot bike lanes on both sides of the road
- Curbs and gutters in place of ditches on either side of the road
The project is expected to wrap in December
While Dec. 15 is the target date to wrap up, Manning said the final phase of the project includes laying a final layer of asphalt, which will be weather-dependent.
“The big challenge there for staff is just making sure that you know we’re getting our final asphalt surface down, and so that’s dependent upon temperature,” he said. “We don’t want to lay asphalt when it’s too cold because we’re not getting a great product, and so that’s kind of what we’re keeping an eye on right now.”
If December weather is too cold, then they will lay the final layer in the spring, he added.
“We’re not taking that for granted right now. We’re trying to get it wrapped up this year (and) driving hard towards that,” he said.
During Manning’s presentation, Councilmember Erin Aldridge asked for clarity on what would happen if the city misses that window of time to lay asphalt.
“More than likely… it’s going to be open. It would, essentially, be like a winter (construction) shutdown … The roadway would still be traversable over the winter, but we would just come back in the spring when the temperatures are a little more friendly and lay that final layer,” he said.
I-435 Bridge project will also wrap this winter
In addition, in November, work is expected to be complete on the Kansas Department of Transportation’s Little Mill Creek Bridge Project, which has caused detours and delays on I-435 near Midland Drive.
While the northbound ramp from Midland Drive to Interstate 435 will be closed for the remainder of the project, it will reopen tentatively on Nov. 20, with a final cleanup of the project expected by the end of the year.
“Traffic will essentially be normalized to that point. So (we have) about two more months to go, and then hopefully every bridge in that area is good for the 50 years,” Manning said.
Go deeper: Despite delays, Shawnee’s $12.4M Midland Drive project still expected to finish by November
