Governor Laura Kelly and the Kansas Department of Transportation have announced plans to reinvest funds into several state highway improvements for fiscal year 2020.
Governor Kelly and Kansas Secretary of Transportation Julie Lorenz made the announcement of plans to reinvest $160 million included in the Governor’s FY 2020 budget into transportation. The $160 million comes from reducing the amount of money transferred out of the State Highway Fund.
The funds will be used to help complete multiple delayed Transportation Works for Kansas, also known as T-WORKS, projects across the state. This includes work on US Highway 50 in Lyon County.
KDOT Spokesperson Laurie Arellano explains the specifics of the Highway 50 project.
Three other projects are included on the same list as Highway 50. These include US Highway 54 in Seward County, US Highway 169 in Anderson County and US Highway 281 in Russell County.
Arellano says the expressway project for US-50 was identified as a need during the original T-Works list before the projects were delayed.
Since 2011, more than $2 billion has been transferred out of the State Highway fund which caused costly project delays, such as the work on Highway 50, reduced highway preservation work, caused a decline in the health of the state’s highway system and led to an inability to plan for future projects. Governor Kelly says in a press release “these are important steps forward, but to be clear, we still have a long way to go in order to get our transportation system where it should be.”
According to Arellano, if the budget is approved for FY 2020 as presented, the planned work for Highway 50 would begin in spring 2020 and could take roughly a year to complete. The total cost for that project would be an estimated $6.5 million.
Along with the improvement projects, the funds will also help to reinstate several state programs including the Kansas Local Bridge Improvement Program and a new cost-share program for state and local partnerships. All of the investments are aligned with recommendations from the Joint Legislative Transportation Vision Task Force.
According to a press release from the Governor’s Office, highway preservation was the top priority of the task force. Plans are to utilize $50 million of the proposed $160 million to increase highway preservation investment from $350 to $400 million.
$2 million is also being proposed to increase funding for transit, aviation, rail and bike/pedestrian programs. KDOT will evaluate where the funding is most needed and make strategic investments accordingly.
