Traffic is just about to get back to normal on part of Commercial Street after a sinkhole developed earlier this year.
10th and Commercial, as well as the area immediately south, should reopen to drivers Thursday afternoon, closing down what City Engineer Jim Ubert says has been a 3-phase project.
The 900 block of Commercial has been closed for roughly six weeks after the sinkhole developed outside Carlos Liquor, or near the southeast corner of the 10th and Commercial intersection, in late March. The 10th and Commercial intersection has also been blocked for several weeks as the research and repair effort continued.
Ubert says the third phase involves more research, more design work and more conversations before more construction.
The city has to finish Phase 3 repairs before a mill-and-overlay project on Commercial Street in conjunction with the Kansas Department of Transportation. Work on the KDOT project will bid in January, with work starting in March 2027.
Ubert says design plans are about 50 percent completed. Work remains on locating utilities among other underground research. It could be another month before work begins on final designs.
