The local paper has done a story about the status of the South Lawrence Trafficway highway project — which, as the local highway guru, I have a perticular interest, and have been observing since about 1990.
As it stands, the earliest the SLT could be completed is 2012, based upon the idea the legislature would start up a new transportaion plan upon the expiration of the current one in 2009, and that threatand litigation were judged in KDOT’s favor. The current proposal calls for the SLT — and a proposed relocation of local 31st Street — to be built across a common ROW within the northern part of the Baker Wetlands. Needless to say, many in the environmental community are not going along with it.
The thesis of the EIS approving the proposed 32nd Street routing is that the short-term mitigatable environmental impacts of the 32nd Street route outweigh the long-term impacts to the wetlands due to the concequences of the proposed 42nd Street alignment south of the Wakarusa River that the environmentalists are preferring. I accept and agree with this thesis.
As for funding: despite the anti-tax feelings currently occuring in the statehouse, I think that another transportation plan will be in the works. I know of at least one other major project that has had no money allocated to it all all — the interchange between I-235 and US 54 (Kellogg Ave.) is substandard and due for a major upgrade; however, the price tag is preety heafty — a railroad line and the “Big Ditch” complacate matters.
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One response to “SLT Musings”
By 2012, the phenomenon known as the peak of oil production will have likely passed, making oil more and more expensive. Instead of building yet another idiotic highway, we should be re-building our passenger rail system, re-creating walkable communities, and putting the silly idea that we can drive anywhere we please forever out of our minds.