I-70 @ WaKeeney will close for a day

[edwaleni]

Law enforcement raises concerns over I-70 closure

https://www.ksn.com/news/state-regional/law-enforcement-raises-concerns-over-i-70-closure/

Hoxie, Kansas is even closing the schools that day due to safety issues with school buses and the number of trucks.

They say K-23 can't take that much traffic. I thought why don't they just use Old US-40 until I noticed, it isn't even striped!

What a mess.

[74/171FAN]

I am surprised that this is not a weekend closure.

[roadman65]

I read KDOT don't like to detour vehicles onto county roads and has an unwritten rule to detour only on other state highways for safety.

[webny99]

I am surprised that this is not a weekend closure.

On a rural interstate like I-70, traffic is usually lightest midweek. It would have made more sense to do it before schools reopened though.

I also doubt much traffic will use the posted detour since I-70 will presumably be open from Grainfield to Collyer, and Old Route 40 can be used to bypass the closed section.

[CtrlAltDel]

The bridge is pretty banged up:

[edwaleni]

On a rural interstate like I-70, traffic is usually lightest midweek. It would have made more sense to do it before schools reopened though.

I also doubt much traffic will use the posted detour since I-70 will presumably be open from Grainfield to Collyer, and Old Route 40 can be used to bypass the closed section.

Old US 40 is a gravel county road for the majority of the bypass, with a few small paved sections that are not striped. It's not wide enough for two trucks to pass each other and would probably be more hazardous than the state route.

[webny99]

I also doubt much traffic will use the posted detour since I-70 will presumably be open from Grainfield to Collyer, and Old Route 40 can be used to bypass the closed section.

Old US 40 is a gravel county road for the majority of the bypass, with a few small paved sections that are not striped. It's not wide enough for two trucks to pass each other and would probably be more hazardous than the state route.

Thanks for the info - there's not much Street View in that area but if it is gravel it obviously can't be used as a posted detour route.

Even so, it seems unlikely that much traffic will use the K-23 portion of the detour, since anyone using US 24 could just get off at Colby instead. Between Colby and Hoxie, using US 24 would save at least 15 minutes and be over 20 miles shorter than remaining on I-70 to K-23. Overall, US 24 to US 283 seems like a reasonably high quality detour that wouldn't be terribly disruptive.

[CtrlAltDel]

They say K-23 can't take that much traffic.

The AADT on that stretch of I-70 hovers around 13,000, and the AADT of K-23 around Hoxie is about 1,500, which is a ways below the capacity of a two-lane road, although the turning will be problematic. Still, if things were supposed to go on for more than a day, it would probably be better to find some other option, but they're not.

[epzik8]

Dang, I didn't know Kansas had their own 11 foot 8 bridge.

[LilianaUwU]

Dang, I didn't know Kansas had their own 11 foot 8 bridge.

You'd think a bridge over an Interstate would be built to Interstate standards.

[edwaleni]

Dang, I didn't know Kansas had their own 11 foot 8 bridge.

You'd think a bridge over an Interstate would be built to Interstate standards.

Interesting, in this particular stretch of I-70, there are (1) 15-3 overpass and (1) 14-9.

I have heard of clearance loss due to layered paving but this would be an exceptional loss.

I checked and found that this segment of I-70 was built over 2 years, 1959-1960.

Seems Trego County built their segment much earlier than the rest. It started at what is now K-147 east of Ogallah (which was US-40 at the time) and ended at the Collyer exit at 130 Avenue. US-40 then jumped back up to the 2 lane at Collyer.

Here is a pix from the KDOT State Map of 1960.

[webny99]

I also doubt much traffic will use the posted detour since I-70 will presumably be open from Grainfield to Collyer, and Old Route 40 can be used to bypass the closed section.

Well, scratch that. Actually double scratch that, because not only is I-70 closed all the way from Grainfield to WaKeeney, Old Route 40 is also closed (or at least marked closed on Google Maps) on the segments parallel to the closed portion of I-70.

So K 25/Country Club Dr in Colby to US 24 to US 283 is the primary route for thru and truck traffic at this point. No I-70 traffic should be using K 23 though unless they're either clued out, blindly following the detour, or actively choosing to add 15-20 minutes to their route.

[CtrlAltDel]

Traffic doesn't seem too bad along the route. There's a bit at the turns, though, especially north through Hill City, which makes sense since there are fewer detour options in that direction.

[webny99]

^ Another minor ripple effect can be seen on US 83 at US 24. That intersection has no traffic control on US 24 and a two-way stop on US 83, which I'm sure is usually fine but the additional traffic on US 24 seems to have caused backups approaching the stop sign on US 83.

[CtrlAltDel]

All is now back to normal:


Here is a video of the demolition. It seems they used dynamite.

[Road Hog]

Here's an explanation of why the K in WaKeeney is capitalized: It's a portmanteau of the names Warren and Keeney, the two business partners that first established the city.

[rickmastfan67]

Dang.  The damage to the bridge was pretty bad there.  I'm surprised they waited as long as they did to take it down.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/QfeL56pTBHtpJ8rg6

GSV just happened to go thru right before the demolition in July.

[edwaleni]

That is crazy. You can see that KDOT had repaired prior damage twice before.

[epzik8]

Here's an explanation of why the K in WaKeeney is capitalized: It's a portmanteau of the names Warren and Keeney, the two business partners that first established the city.

I spent a night at the KOA there in 2009. Very neat curiosity the town is.