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K-96 Northeast Freeway improvements in Wichita

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J N Winkler:
KDOT has been planning improvements to the K-96 Northeast Freeway in Wichita, originally built in the late 1980's, that include widening to six lanes from just west of Hillside to just south of 21st Street (essentially, the first seven miles east of I-135) and pavement replacement for the remainder of the route down to Kellogg/I-35 (two miles or so).

Today, I attended the first open house.  They had a rollplot of the entire corridor, together with posters on stands explaining the various interchange concepts, the NEPA process, noise mitigation, and so on.

https://www.k96improvements.com/open-house

Not all of the material at the open house has been posted online--for example, the rollplot and the noise information are not present as of this writing.

KDOT's design concept calls for the following:

*  Inside widening (paving the existing grass median, which is generally wide enough to accommodate a third lane in each direction)

*  DDIs at Hillside, Oliver, and 21st, reusing the existing bridges as much as practical

*  Either DDIs or Displaced Left Turns (DLTs) (similar to I-35/SR 152 in Liberty, Missouri) at Woodlawn and Rock

*  Relocation of the 32nd Street intersection at Rock to prevent it being blocked by traffic queuing at the K-96 eastbound ramps

*  Widening ramp terminals at Greenwich (this interchange, the only one not part of the original construction, was added in the mid-2010's)

*  Reworking the Webb interchange to convert it from a parclo to more of a diamond with an added loop ramp for eastbound to northbound traffic and an unusual channelization pattern for the traffic signal at 29th and Webb, which will have a new eastbound exit ramp feeding into it (folks at the open house had many, many questions about it; the longer I look at it, the more wild I think it is)

Since this plan calls for K-96 to remain more or less within its existing footprint, I expect land acquisition to be minimal, though there would be takes at Rock (for the 32nd Street relocation and a larger interchange area) and Webb (the new westbound exit ramp clips a corner off the airfield at Jabara Airport).  I will be surprised if the noise mitigation is upgraded.  KDOT apparently begins considering countermeasures when noise increases by 10 dB or more; traffic is forecast just to double (from about 50,000 VPD now to design year AADT of 100,000 VPD), and although this means sound power will also double, this translates to an increase of just 3 dB for receivers that will be no closer to the freeway lanes.

The DDIs would be the first in Wichita, though there are multiple examples on the Kansas side of the Kansas City metro.  The DLTs would be the first in Kansas.

situveux1:
Do you get any visuals of the Webb/29th/EB 96 ramp concept? I wanted to go to the open house but had to work. I was particularly interested in what they would do there, not sure how you thread the off ramps into 29th without some additional over/under pass. I'm not sure how I feel about the DDIs. For Rock Rd in particular, I thought maybe something like I35 and 87th St in Lenexa might work better, but maybe that takes land they don't have.

J N Winkler:

--- Quote from: situveux1 on February 03, 2023, 10:39:55 AM ---Do you get any visuals of the Webb/29th/EB 96 ramp concept? I wanted to go to the open house but had to work. I was particularly interested in what they would do there, not sure how you thread the off ramps into 29th without some additional over/under pass.
--- End quote ---

The posterboards they put online do include renderings for each interchange.  Here is the one for Webb:

Webb design concept (plan and aerial views)

There are some aspects of the design I felt were tenuous.  The new westbound off-ramp would terminate in two left-turn and two right-turn lanes, none of which is shown as being under signal control.  I am not sure this actually complies with the MUTCD.  And it looks like eastbound traffic on 29th Street would lose the ability to make a left turn at Webb that it currently has.


--- Quote from: situveux1 on February 03, 2023, 10:39:55 AM ---I'm not sure how I feel about the DDIs. For Rock Rd in particular, I thought maybe something like I35 and 87th St in Lenexa might work better, but maybe that takes land they don't have.
--- End quote ---

I read I-35/87th Street as a SPUI variant with grade separation for the long ramp that ultimately leads to 75th Street.  I don't know if a SPUI at Woodlawn or Rock would have given them the traffic performance they are looking for.  I actually found the DDIs easier to understand than the DLTs--I had to ask about the latter because the plan-view rendering for Woodlawn left me with the impression there would be a lane segment that receives traffic from both directions, which seemed like a recipe for disaster if traffic in one direction fails to clear before the lane alternates to the other direction.  It helped to be reminded of the existing example at I-35/SR 152 in Liberty, which neither has nor needs such a two-way lane and works just fine.

Both the DDIs and DLTs would be future shock to Wichita drivers, though I am sure most of us would eventually adjust.  It was not clear to me why the latter might be preferable to the former at Woodlawn and Rock.

Anthony_JK:
It looks like the setup at Webb/26th incorporates "J-turns" at the signalized intersections where left turn movements to/from 26th or Webb can perform "Michigan Left" movements to turn left. Seems a lot safer, if confusing.

Scott5114:
What is the supposed benefit of a DLT over a DDI? It just sort of seems like a more expensive and less beneficial alternative.

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