The most congested highway in Johnson County could get $300M expansion — with tolls
Officials with the Kansas Department of Transportation and Overland Park on Thursday said funding a $300 million expansion of U.S. 69 — the most congested four-lane highway in the state — could likely mean adding toll lanes.
During his annual State of the City address, Mayor Carl Gerlach said improving the infamously backed-up highway is one of the city’s top priorities — saying that leaders have been “knocking on doors, texting and calling state and federal representatives,” pleading for support.
The city and Kansas Turnpike Authority are conducting a study to determine the financial feasibility of widening U.S. 69 to six lanes from 103rd to 151st streets. Gerlach said the preliminary cost estimate is $300 million.
But funding such a project remains challenging in a state that borrowed more than $2 billion from its highway fund during the Brownback administration.
Gerlach said Overland Park has been looking at ways to pay a portion of the cost to help accelerate the project, which could mean turning those two additional lanes into toll lanes.
“If we don’t do something unique and different like tolling, we may have to wait 10, 13, 14 years before we get U.S. 69 expanded,” Gerlach said. “Can we do that? I don’t think so.”
Around 80,000 vehicles travel the stretch of U.S. 69 each day. KDOT estimates traffic volume will double, and travel times will triple, by 2045.
“In terms of congestion on a four-lane highway, it’s the worst in the state. In fact, it gets a grade of an ‘F’ today,” said Julie Lorenz, secretary of KDOT. “And it gets worse in the future if we don’t do something about it.”
Lorenz said the highway would not become a traditional tollway with toll booths. Instead, only the new, outer lanes would be tolled electronically. The other lanes would remain free.
Such “express lanes” have been built in other metro areas, such as in Dallas and Denver. Typically, the far-left lane is tolled, and is priced at a higher rate during rush hour. Lorenz said drivers could be encouraged to pay the toll in order to drive at faster speeds during back-ups.
After finishing the feasibility study, Overland Park and KDOT will ask for community feedback about adding toll lanes. If stakeholders decide to move forward, another study would be conducted to determine toll rates. Then, KDOT could take the proposal to the Kansas Turnpike Authority for review, and eventually ask for approval from the state legislature.
“It’s not pushed down anybody’s throat. It’s only if you want to do it,” Lorenz said. “The reason you might want to do it is so we can build that lane faster, sooner.”
Toll revenue could be used to offset a portion of the costs to design, construct and maintain the highway.
Meanwhile, crews are ramping up for road construction projects across Johnson County this spring.
In March, crews should begin widening Interstate 35 under the 75th Street bridge, which is one of the worst bottlenecks in the Kansas City area. The highway narrows from five to three lanes in each direction at 75th Street in Shawnee and Overland Park, causing regular traffic jams.
This story was originally published February 13, 2020 at 4:05 PM.
