The state Transportation Department on Tuesday announced 22 projects that will share in a $50 million pot of money approved by the Legislature last session.
Gov. Laura Kelly and Transportation Secretary Julie Lorenz announced the projects, which total $74 million in federal, state and local investment.
The state will cover about $39 million of the project costs. The remaining $11 million will be held over for a second round of project requests in the spring.
The selected projects included about $18.1 million for the Wichita North Junction project, where Interstates 135 and 235 meet with Kansas 254 and 96.
Transportation planners also awarded $2.2 million to Great Bend for improvements to U.S. 56 and improvements to the historic drag strip where the National Hot Rod Association staged its first national championship in 1955.
They also included $1 million for runway improvements at Salina Regional Airport and $105,000 for biking and hiking trails in Liberal.
Other projects included $1.1 million for a pedestrian and bicycle tunnel on 87th Street in Lenexa and about $1.7 million for intersection improvements at Kansas 7 and Eisenhower Road in Lansing.
Another $3.5 million was granted for reconstructing East Quincy Street in Pittsburg. The road is an entryway into Pittsburg State University.
The Transportation Department received $245 million in requests for a slice of the $50 million approved by the Legislature last session. A portion of the new money comes from state revenues that exceeded estimates.
The program is intended to match cash that local governments contribute to an array of projects, ranging from roads and public transportation to airports and rail.
The state received 93 applications from across the state, from Overland Park to Garden City with dozens of local governments in between. Here is a list of all projects that were submitted to the state for funding.
Applicants were required to match between 15% and 25% of state funding, although the higher the local match, the more competitive the project was for state funding.
The goal was not to replace local funding with state funding, but rather to assist projects that might not otherwise get completed without state aid.
The state is now trying to finish what’s left of the last 10-year transportation plan as it works on developing a new one.
There are an estimated $18 billion in transportation needs identified statewide in new projects, separate from ongoing highway maintenance and preservation efforts.
During the development of the last plan in 2010, $15 billion in needs were identified, but only $1.7 billion in projects made it into the plan.
