At some point over the next few years, much of U.S. 54 will need to be rebuilt through Iola.
Cognizant of what such a disruption would mean for business owners and residents alike, city officials are eager to hear from the public on how they’d like to see the project completed.
A smattering of Iolans showed up through a 2½ hour open house session Thursday at Iola’s Riverside Park to get a firsthand look at what’s needed.
The plan is to eventually replace more than a mile of the highway, extending from State Street to Kansas Drive.
Unlike previous repairs involving milling off the top and adding a new layer of asphalt, this rebuild will be from the ground up, and thus substantially more costly, and take longer to complete.
The city will continue to gather input into the fall before selecting an option to carry forward into preliminary engineering, Interim City Administrator Corey Schinstock said.
Engineers from Burns & McDonald offered up illustrations of what various design options would entail, including widening the highway’s right-of-way or converting the current four-lane layout to three lanes, with one lane going in either direction and a turning lane in the middle. Other amenities, such as adding bike lanes or lighting and widening sidewalks, also will be considered.
An online survey has been developed (click here to access it) to gather comments on what priorities should be stressed, including:
— cost;
— improving safety for bicyclists or pedestrians;
— minimizing the impact of having the road closed for an extended period;
— sidewalk width and rights-of-way impacts. (Widening the corridor would require obtaining rights-of-way from adjoining property owners, Schinstock noted.)
Schinstock also hopes to provide a link to the online survey at the cityofiola.com website.
The construction itself likely will not occur before 2024 at the earliest, and would likely require a successful bond issue because of the price tag, projected to run into the millions of dollars.
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