K-10 a toll road? Sort of...

[WichitaRoads]

I know this probably has been discussed some before, but the local story running today is that K-10 between Lawrence and KC-Area may become a toll road... or at least a toll lane...

http://www.ksn.com/2013/05/24/plan-suggests-toll-lanes-on-k-10-in-eastern-kansas/

ICTRds

[J N Winkler]

To be precise, this is an idea to widen K-10 between Lawrence and Lenexa by tolling the additional capacity (as HOT lanes), which may be part of T-WORKS' successor capital improvement program (if such materializes), and so is not to be confused with earlier suggestions that the SLT be tolled to cover the construction cost.

My personal feeling is that, given the current bent of the Legislature, it is an open question whether there will be a follow-up program to T-WORKS at all.

[WichitaRoads]

To be precise, this is an idea to widen K-10 between Lawrence and Lenexa by tolling the additional capacity (as HOT lanes), which may be part of T-WORKS' successor capital improvement program (if such materializes), and so is not to be confused with earlier suggestions that the SLT be tolled to cover the construction cost.

My personal feeling is that, given the current bent of the Legislature, it is an open question whether there will be a follow-up program to T-WORKS at all.

I agree with your personal feelings. I remember when I heard them tease this story, they just said "a possible new toll road in Kansas?"... which is patently misleading. My first thought was K-10, though.

ICTRds

[situveux1]

When we lived in Lawrence, I felt like the vibe was against tolling of K-10 because they thought it would hurt economic development if both major routes to KC were toll roads. I don't know if I agree with that or not, but that was the feeling I got. I wonder what the response would be to a tolling of just HOT lanes.

[route56]

The proposed addition of HOT lanes on K-10 is part of the final report of phase 2 of the 5-county regional transportation study. The final report, from KDOT, is available at http://kdotapp2.ksdot.org/5CountyStudy/get_more_info/reportsPhase2.aspx

Among the other suggestions: Extend the Ramp Meters on 435 from Metcalf to Quivera, and add them to I-35 and US 69 on-ramps as well.

Johnathan: do you believe that the current 'bent' of the legistature could be changed between now and the time for the T-WORKS follow-up?

[J N Winkler]

Jonathan: do you believe that the current 'bent' of the legistature could be changed between now and the time for the T-WORKS follow-up?

I think it is possible, but at this stage I don't feel I have enough information to speculate as to whether it is probable.  There has been a lot of changeover in the Legislature over the past couple of election cycles, and we still have three more to go (2014, 2016, 2018) before the time is ripe to consider a successor program to T-WORKS.  Last year there was a lot of speculation as to what the Legislature would do this year as a result of a large number of freshmen representatives and senators being elected essentially in the Republican primary--and much of that prognostication has turned out to be wrong.  (I feel personally burned since I agreed with many of these predictions at the time they were made.)

T-WORKS will leave a lot of work undone:  in the Wichita area this includes the Northwest Wichita Bypass, the Kellogg freeway extension west to Goddard, and the I-135/I-235 north interchange (which Wichita KDOT now calls "North Junction") expansion.  I am less familiar with the Kansas City metro area, but I can see K-7 freeway expansion remaining on KDOT's to-do list as well as a rural widening of K-10.  Transportation is traditionally a strong lobby in Kansas politics, so I expect there to be significant demand for a T-WORKS successor program.  But there are some emerging factors which I think could affect the final result:

*  If the governor and Legislature push ahead with income tax phaseout, how will this affect transportation funding?  (It has already played a role in this session since KDOT depends on a sales tax increment for part of T-WORKS.)

*  Could key players in transportation funding allocation be getting ready to retire?  (Les Donovan, for example?)  If so, who will replace them, and what is their opinion as to the importance of transportation compared to other uses of state revenue?

*  Might we be struggling with a rising sentiment that transportation (especially highways) in Kansas is overfunded?  There have already been suggestions that KDOT provision in some instances has been more luxurious than necessary--e.g. a full freeway bypass of Cunningham for US 54, or on-the-shelf plans for a full freeway bypass of Kingman notwithstanding sub-10,000 design-year AADT.