A two-portion project to enhanced county roads permitted by the Barton County Fee Monday morning is a matter of safety, County Engineer Barry McManaman claimed. Commissioners OKed shelling out the county’s part of updates to NW 50 Street and at the intersection of North Washington Avenue and North 30 Street.
“These are at two independent places and are two independent matters we’re undertaking to check out to boost our roadways,” he said.
The Kansas Department of Transportation opened bids on July 21 for the project that includes producing intersection protection improvements at the North Washington and North 30 Highway intersection, the web page of a fatality crash in 2018, and widening a concrete drainage box on NW 50 Street .1 mile east of NW 10 Avenue.
L & M Contractors Inc., Terrific Bend, submitted the small bid of $603,844. KDOT identified the bid satisfactory and asked for the county approve awarding the contract. Barton County is responsible for 10% of the development charges in the total of $61,000, McManaman reported.
Each initiatives drop in KDOT’s High-chance Rural Street System. Beneath this, the point out, utilizing federal funds, handles 90% of the cost for these kinds of protection enhancements.
At Washington and 30 road, the enhancements will enhance driver consciousness of the North 30 Road cease and offer extra warning, he said. These will incorporate LED-lit halt signs, yellow radar-activated overhead flashing warning lights for north-sure Washington visitors and east-west-bound 30 Street targeted visitors, broader rumble strips, and the relocating of trees on the southeast corner of the intersection to give a better sight line for drivers.
This junction has been the scene of numerous severe crashes in current decades and the matter of significantly discussion.
Subsequent the lethal crash that killed 18-calendar year-aged Shealee A. Stover on April 17, 2018, a number of modifications were made at the corner. Then, on June 11, Francis Haberman, 91, was very seriously injured when his pickup was struck by a trash truck.
“I requested for this task to be regarded as the Shaelee Stover challenge in dwelling so that we maintain that in the forefront of our minds,” District 5 Commissioner Jennifer Schartz said. That crash put the intersection on the county’s radar, but much more importantly it set it on the state’s radar.
“Without this 90% payment the state will make, there’s no way that we could have addressed that unsafe intersection in the way that it that it will be now,” she explained. “And I just think that it is seriously crucial for mothers and fathers who have misplaced kids that are not overlooked. And that was one reason that I wanted to do that.
And, “it tends to make me experience proud that some thing good can appear from these a tragic scenario,” she mentioned.
Right after the Stover crash, adjustments bundled new, much larger, 48-inch quit indications, larger sized “Cross Site visitors Does Not Stop” indicators and more substantial “Stop Ahead” signs, all with ultra-higher quality reflectivity. The pace limit was also amended, extending the 45 mph zone a 50 percent mile north of the corner.
Added rumble strips ended up also extra on 30 Road.
In Oct 2019, at the ask for of KDOT, commissioners OKed a three-get together design agreement that involved KDOT, Barton County and TranSystems Company of Kansas City to tackle the style. The function included signing enhancements at the intersection and North 30 Street as effectively as NW 50 Road east of NW 10 Avenue.
Barton County paid the layout fees of all-around $77,000 to TransSystems and KDOT reimbursed the county 90% of the prices as perfectly.
All those are the designs that are ready and staying implemented.
At the concrete box site west of the county-owned memorial parks, 50 Highway has a fall-off only two feet from the outside white line and close to the edge of the pavement. So, widening the box increases roadside safety by developing a wider shoulder and going the drop-offs at the finishes of the box additional from the driving lanes.
“We have a existing concrete drainage box with the edges of the box serious shut to the white lines,” he reported. “We have a really good fall off there.” McManaman stated.
So, this will broaden that box allowing for broader shoulders there.
Both of those employment need to be concluded by February 2022, he mentioned. Neither Washington nor 30 Highway will be closed during the process, but 50 Street will be shut down with a detour,