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[J N Winkler]

The Dole VA Center is also noted on a supplemental sign for Oliver/Edgemoor (eastbound), as well as on an overhead sign after the exit for no apparent reason (no arrow, no nothing, kind of like 'Well, you're passing it now').  Not sure if/where it's signed westbound....

The VA is at the northwest corner of Kellogg and Edgemoor.  It is ironic that it is now named after Bob Dole because it was he who inserted language into the NHSDA (1995) which required the VA to give up the bottom half of the lawn leading up to the main building at the site.  This lawn allowed the building to dominate the intersection and serve as a rather attractive landmark in the days when Kellogg still had a boulevard cross-section with signals at arterial intersections.  This taking was necessary to expand Kellogg to a full freeway but totally wrecked the landscaping of the VA complex.

I think the second sign for the VA eastbound (the one that is mounted on a cantilever truss in the median) is left over from construction of the Oliver interchange.  Although Oliver and Edgemoor are now effectively a split diamond and give the impression of having been built together, in fact the grade separation at Edgemoor was built as part of the Woodlawn interchange contract.  There were several years of no construction on Kellogg between completion of Oliver and start of work on Woodlawn, during which time drivers wishing to access the VA center from Kellogg had to turn left at Edgemoor.  I think the median sign used to have a "NEXT LEFT" message or similar (using demountable copy) which has been removed since it is now no longer possible to access the VA eastbound except via the Oliver exit.

In fact the entire sign and truss should have been removed, but the City of Wichita has a poor record of removing redundant signs and trusses on Kellogg.  For example, there is a cantilever truss with a big empty yellow-background sign panel on Kellogg eastbound just past West Street:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Wichita,+KS&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Wichita,+Sedgwick,+Kansas&ll=37.673856,-97.383199&spn=0.002191,0.004823&t=m&z=18&vpsrc=6&layer=c&cbll=37.673888,-97.383313&panoid=HbVnfZufAZwJgpCYIOSLgw&cbp=12,82.1,,0,-19.54

In the years after the West Street SPUI was finished but before the City started on the Meridian/Edwards split diamond and the Seneca/Sycamore interchange complex, this sign panel used to have a "LANE ENDS - MERGE RIGHT 1/4 MILE" message to help handle the transition from six-lane freeway back to the old boulevard cross-section.  The sign panel and truss should have been removed about 15 years ago when Kellogg upgrades were finally finished between West and Washington, but only the copy (demountable, as was the KDOT standard at the time) was removed, everything else being left in place.

I suspect this sign and truss will be removed only when the I-235/Kellogg interchange upgrade gets underway in perhaps three to four years.  They will be affected since the West Street SPUI will need to be expanded in order to accommodate ramp braiding.

[kphoger]

Awesome!  I was wondering why that yellow panel was still mounted, figuring it was pretty old (before my time in Wichita).

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New on the Roadgeek Cam: I-70 from East Lawrence to I-435:

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I-435 from I-70 to K-10

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Last video (for now): the K-10 freeway.

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Photos for March (Including an off-kilter K-192 shield posted in the Worst of Road Signs thread):

[route56]

Here is the April road photos... including some new signs for future I-49.

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May 4th -- construction of K-18 in Riley County:

[route56]

OK, Finally, got new photos posted up to May 31.

I'm not going to post links to each individual photo, so you'll just have to settle for a gallery link:

http://www.route56.com/gallery/2012/May12/

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July 2: Rock Port, MO to Grandview....



July 14... Kansas City.

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