Dec 18, 2020

Kelly announces infrastructure funding for Ellis County

Posted Dec 18, 2020 11:26 AM

Ellis County selected to receive Kansas Local Bridge Improvement Program grant

Office of the Governor

TOPEKA – This week, Gov. Laura Kelly announced Ellis County was selected to receive funding as part of the Kansas Local Bridge Improvement Program. 

Kelly and Kansas Department of Transportation Secretary Julie Lorenz announced the selection as part of the state-local partnership program that is part of the IKE transportation program. This year’s selections include 27 counties and three cities who will receive a combined total of $5.1 million.  

“Congratulations to Ellis County for submitting a successful application and securing local matching funds for a bridge project that is critical to the community’s success,” Kelly said. “Improving the overall transportation system across our state is integral to our economic recovery, and an important step forward as we work to invest in and rebuild our state’s foundation.” 

“We are very thankful KDOT saw the need to assist us with repairing this bridge,” said Ellis County Public Works Director Bill Ring. “This bridge is used for agriculture traffic to go into the county to our north and will keep us from creating detour routes that would add miles of travel to the farmers.” 

Funds will be used for the replacement of the bridge located approximately 14 miles north and half a mile east of Catharine on 310th Avenue. The county also received funding to permanently close and remove an additional bridge located 2 miles east of Ellis on 140th Avenue. 

KDOT reinstated this bridge program in 2019 to assist cities and counties by providing up to $150,000 toward the replacement or rehabilitation of a bridge on the local roadway system.  For this recent round of KLBIP selections, a total of 68 applications from 61 local public agencies were received with requests for $11.4 million in funds. The total value of the individual bridge replacement costs ranged from $150,000 to $2.4 million.  

“We welcome opportunities to partner with Kansas cities and counties to replace or rehabilitate deteriorating bridges,” Lorenz said. “This program allows KDOT to help communities move forward with projects that keep critical local roadways open and viable.” 

The KLBIP targets bridges 20-50 feet in length and with a daily vehicle count of less than 100. Of the nearly 25,000 total bridges on the roadway system — approximately 19,000 of them owned by local entities — over 5,700 have ratings or characteristics that make them eligible for replacement under this program. 

The list of northwest Kansas cities and counties receiving funding is below. Those with an asterisk indicate recipients that also chose to close a second deficient bridge in order to receive an additional $50,000.  

Cheyenne County * 

Ellis County * 

Graham County 

Ness County * 

Norton County * 

Rooks County * 

Scott County 

Sheridan County * 

Sherman County * 

Wallace County *