The busy section of U.S Route 69 through Overland Park is set to grow soon, with the highway growing from four to six lanes between 103rd Street and 179th Street.
But exactly what that expansion looks like is still up for debate, with proposals for adding tolls or a tolled express lane on the table.
“At eighty thousand vehicles per day, the existing four-lane highway is not sufficient to carry this much traffic, which is what leads to congestion and higher crash rates,” says Lindsey Douglas, spokesperson for the Kansas Department of Transportation. “The expansion to six lanes will accommodate today’s traffic as well as the increased traffic projected as the city’s population increases.”
Here are the key numbers to know about the project.
$300 Million
The proposed cost of the highway expansion. “The near-term improvements cost approximately $300 million and would fix current and near-term safety and congestion problems and reconstruct aging bridges and pavement,” Douglas says.
01
In Kansas there is currently one toll road, the Kansas Turnpike, which covers two hundred thirty-six miles.
6.5
The first phase of the work would potentially be from 151st to 103rd streets, approximately six and a half miles, Douglas says.
02
Two lanes would be added. The project would expand the existing four-lane road to a six-lane road by adding a twelve-foot lane and the narrow shoulders with wider shoulders on both sides, Douglas says.
80,000
Number of vehicles that travel U.S. Route 69 each day. It’s the state’s busiest four-lane highway, Douglas says.
53%
The current crash rate on this highway is fifty-three percent above the statewide average.
90%
Nine in ten Johnson County residents favor doing something to improve U.S. 69. Sixty-two percent were concerned about travel safety while fifty-nine percent were concerned about travel time predictability.
