Lenexa expects to complete major Quivira Road project soon, after months of delays

Sep 29, 2023

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A major project to resurface and make other improvements to a stretch of Quivira Road between 75th and 87th streets was originally scheduled to wrap up this past spring. Above, traffic reduced to one lane as work continues. Photo credit Leah Wankum.

Construction on a busy stretch of Quivira Road is likely headed for completion this month, bringing to an end an obstacle course of cones, metal plates and heavy equipment that drivers in Lenexa and Shawnee have been dodging for most of this year.

Key takeaways

• A major resurfacing and construction project along Quivira Road in Lenexa is expected to finally wrap up this month.

• The project, which runs from 75th to 87th streets, was originally supposed to be completed this past spring, but various complications pushed its timeline back.

• City officials acknowledge the project and its delays have created headaches for residents and businesses along that stretch of one of the city's busiest arterial roads.

When it's all over the project – which was originally scheduled to have been completed this past spring – will have an upgraded storm sewer, a nicer median and a new surface.

But it won't be a street transformed, at least not to the casual observer. It will still have four lanes and be relatively narrow, though there will be new turn lanes at 83rd Street.

Pedestrians will have a little more sidewalk on the east side of the street, curb cuts for accessibility and "landing spots" at bus stops. But there will be no new stop lights, bike lanes or any traffic calming measures on the heavily traveled street.

Instead, the $3.9 million budget buys fundamentals long needed to improve the road, which is one the city's main arterial thoroughfares, said Lenexa city engineer Tim Green,

It started as a simple mill and overlay resurfacing project for just under two miles of road that starts around 86th Street in Shawnee and ends at the intersection with 75th Street, at the Lenexa city line near Trailridge Middle School.

The design phase started in August of 2018.

"It started off as a real simple thing. We’re just going to mill and overlay this," Green said. But the more engineers looked, the more they found things about the roadway that needed to be addressed.

The streetlights were old, the sidewalks were incomplete and didn't meet federal standards for disability access. There were traffic tie ups that called out for new turn lanes and the median also needed beautification.

"We were thinking, ‘Okay, if we’re going to do the mill overlay and all this other nice work, let's upgrade the storm sewer system,’" he said. "We figured if we’re in there, let's be in there once and get everything upgraded."

Once the storm sewer entered the equation, though, the project got more complicated.

The utilities were already close to each other beneath the road making it necessary to move some of them. A fiber optic duct handling cables from several owners was a particular headache, Green said.

The project managers also learned that WaterOne had a big line with some bad places running under the southbound lanes. Those were fixed while the street was torn up, but it caused some weekend closures, he said.

The city had given the order to start work in April 2021, but had to pause things in July to address the utility issues. Work started again in January of this year.

A 2018 study of the Quivira Road corridor highlighted a need for better accommodations for pedestrians, cyclists and public transportation along the road, and Lenexa has also committed to a "complete streets" plan with similar goals.

The street work nearing completion incorporated some of that, with its curb cuts, bus stops and updated signal buttons. The project also adds some sidewalk along the east side, where it had been missing.

A stretch south of 83rd Street that runs along a cemetery will remain the last part of the street not to have sidewalks, Green said, adding the right-of-way would have posed a problem, since it might coincide with burial plots. Also, it would mean removing trees along a berm on that side, he said.

City officials looked at the corridor and complete streets study and considered adding bike lanes, trails and other traffic calming measures like roundabouts, he said. But they ultimately decided not to pursue them because the expense of purchasing right-of-way would have been prohibitive.

The road is already narrow, and adding a wider lane on the side would have made it unacceptably so with eight or nine-foot lanes, Green said.

A "road diet" reducing the number of lanes also would not have worked, given the amount of traffic the street carries, he said. Instead the city will encourage bike traffic on side roads like Monrovia Street.

All the construction has been trying for neighbors and businesses along that stretch and Green said the city has done its best to mitigate their concerns.

Metal plates covering some of the work are loud, and city officials have received some complaints about the incessant noise of cars bumping over them, he said. Workers address that by asphalting around the edges to soften the impact with tires.

"You know if you live out there you hear those things day and night. And we understand that so we try to limit those as much as we can," he said.

There are also some small retailers in a few strips along Quivira Road whose owners have been concerned about driveway access. Green said the city recently got some calls about that, and has taken steps to ensure that access points are maintained and driveway work is done quickly.

Adding to the confusion is the fact that Shawnee has its own street project going on 75th Street where it intersects with Quivira, causing its own lane closures.

Shawnee's improvements to 75th Street are expected to wrap up in mid November.

A small part of the northern end of the Quivira project is within the Shawnee city limits and is done in cooperation with that city.

Funding for the Quivira Road project comes from several sources, the largest of which is $2.4 million from the city of Lenexa.

Another $1.4 million comes from the county road fund, or CARS, and Shawnee is contributing $92,376 for its limited portion.

City officials and the contractor will have to identify the cause of each delay to determine if anyone will be penalized, he said.

Green said he will welcome the end of a long and complicated construction.

"We hate when projects take longer than they’re supposed to because we understand it is hard for people," he said. "I think they’ll see in the next thirty days things will get pretty well completed."

Roxie Hammill is a freelance journalist who reports frequently for the Post and other Kansas City area publications. You can reach her at [email protected].