In the future – possibly by 2030 – U.S. 56 east of Great Bend will become a four-lane highway to the K-156 junction, commonly known as Doonan Corner.

The Barton County Commission on Tuesday approved an agreement with the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) covering the roughly two-mile expansion of U.S. 56 into a four-lane roadway with a grassed median.

“The agreement specifies future maintenance and administrative responsibilities for the relocated local road connections that will be constructed,” said County Engineer Barry McManaman. It also outlines the terms of the county’s 10% local match for the estimated $18 million project.

In lieu of a $1.8 million payment, KDOT agreed to credit the county’s expenditures on two already-completed hot-mix overlay projects on NE 30 Road, provided the county pays for the replacement of a bridge on NE 20 Avenue at NE 3 Road. State officials said these improvements will also benefit the expansion effort.

The bridge is just north of the KDOT shop on NE 20 Ave. “It’s a bridge the county is giong to need to do something with at some point in time anyway,” McManaman said, noting it is “somewhat narrow” at 23.5 feet and “if people pay any attention to the weight limit signs there, they can’t take legal loads.”

The total cost for these comes to about $2 million, which will satisfy the match requirement, McManaman said This will hold true even if the cost of the project increases by the time requests for bids are released.

Improvements will include adding two new lanes, reconstructing existing lanes to create a four-lane divided expressway, improving the K-156 intersection with a recommended “unsignalized” “Green T” layout, and limiting highway access for safety.

Additionally, because the highway will now be a four-lane road, three access points will be removed and relocated to improve safety and limit conflicts, McManaman said. These include:

• The East Barton County Road entrance onto U.S. 56 (where the Kiowa Kitchen restaurant was) will be removed and redirected to intersect with Kiowa Road.

• On NE 40 Avenue, the access point on the north side of U.S. 56 will be removed and relocated to a frontage road with access from K-156.

• A north-side field entrance east of Fort Zarah State Park will be removed, with a new access point established. The county agrees to maintain that as a public road in the future.

The project is in the early design/study phase but is not yet funded for construction. The bid letting is planned for 2030.

Discussions about widening the highway east of Great Bend began in 2019 and continued at a public open house attended by county commissioners at the Great Bend Events Center in 2020. 

With the cost of the undertaking increasing over time, commission chair Tricia Schlessiger noted, “(This agreement) would cap what we have to contribute. Even if their construction costs go up, they wouldn’t be asking us to contribute any more.”

McManaman said the County could have authorized a $1.8 million payment in 2022 but KDOT officials offered the alternative of in-kind payment and a partnership with the county.

“Instead of cutting a check, they would like to see us do work that benefits us,” he said.

“This was a tough decision for me,” said Commissioner Shawn Hutchinson. His first instinct was, “Why would we want to contribute to a state highway project as a county?”

He said his intention as a commissioner is to lower property taxes. “There are two ways (to do that),” he said. “One is to cut from the budget and services, and I think we’ve about expended all of that we can over the last five years – and we’ve lowered property taxes over the last five years. The other only real way to lower property taxes is to grow your population, and as our population dwindles, it gets more expensive for everyone to live here. ... So the only way to lower property taxes is to grow our population,” Hutchinson said. The expanded U.S. 56 will help promote this growth.

This project was identified as a high regional priority during meetings with local officials and residents and was selected for the 10-year Eisenhower Legacy Transportation Program (IKE) Construction Pipeline in September 2023.

The state will begin right-of-way acquisition closer to the project start date.

This story was submitted by Barton County media, with additional reporting by Great Bend Tribune Editor Susan Thacker.