The North Vine Street Corridor Project in Hays will be completed by the time a smaller project begins on south Vine Street.
John Braun, city project manager, reviewed timelines for the two projects on Vine Street/U.S. Highway 183 during the city commission work session Thursday night.
The city received a $1 million KDOT City Connecting Link Improvement Program Grant for reconstruction of Vine from the south city limit to the McDonald's restaurant.
Braun presented the recommended low bid of $86,745 by Kaw Valley Engineers, Junction City, for engineering design. Commissioners will vote on the recommendation next week.
Final plans are due May 21, 2021. The KDOT bid letting is scheduled for Nov. 17, 2021 with work to begin in the 2022 construction season.
The $4 million dollar project includes replacement of the concrete pavement, select areas of curb and gutter, sidewalk ramps, pedestrian signals at 8th Street, storm sewer inlet tops, and pavement markings.
Braun also reviewed the U.S. Dept. of Transportation and KDOT agreements in place for the larger North Vine Project between 32nd and 41st/Mopar Streets that includes four traffic roundabouts.
Among the key elements of the $6 million federal BUILD grant awarded in Dec. 2018 is that "construction must begin by July 31st of this year and all costs must be incurred by May 15, 2022. But we do anticipate construction being done by December of 2021," Braun told commissioners.
KDOT is the pass-through agency and will administer the $9.3 million project. The city's share is $3.3 million.
Final design plans went to the state agency last month and a March 25 bid letting is scheduled.
USDOT requires several performance reports from the city including auto crash rates.
"We're doing the project to improve safety so they want to see that safety is improved."
Vehicle crash reports are entered into a database. "We can look back 10 years or more and find crash rates (in this corridor) and the specifics of the crashes." Braun explained. "We just have to compile that data and send it in to see whether crash rates have improved or not."
For three years after the work is complete, reports must be submitted annually about the performance of the corridor.
"We have the levels of service at the intersections that was done as part of the traffic study. We'll have to collect data after the project is done about the delays, the amount of traffic flowing through, and how well it works."
Commissioners will vote next week to allow City Manager Toby Dougherty to enter the three-party agreement setting forth terms and provisions to accomplish the project.
In a related agenda item, Dougherty explained a request to the city commission from the Ellis County Commission about committing the city's remaining portion of a retired countywide sales tax towards the Northwest Business Corridor plan.
Butch Schlyer, Ellis County Commission chairman, wrote in his Feb. 3 request letter "this project will remove four miles of existing county roads north and west of the City of Hays, relieving the North Vine Street Corridor of freight traffic and contributing to the success of the new travel plaza development at 230th Avenue and 55th Street (Interstate 70 Exit 157)."
The commissioners supported the request for the county to retain the city's remaining $284,668.
"This is not going to have an immediate impact on our budget in any way," said Sandy Jacobs, vice-mayor. "I consider this a windfall and when I look at windfalls, I look for opportunities. ... This whole project, the city is going to be one of the biggest benefactors of it."
Ellis County received a federal BUILD grant of $6.5 million in November for the $8.6 million project.
County Commissioner Dustin Roths and interim County Administrator Darin Myers were in the audience but did not speak. City Commissioner Mason Ruder, as an employee of Ellis County, recused himself from the discussion. A vote on the request will be conducted next week.
Developers of the travel plaza have requested a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District.
Kim Rupp, city finance director, reviewed the specifics for a public hearing to be conducted during the Feb. 13 city commission meeting and an ordinance to establish the TIF.
A 30-minute executive session was called at the end of the meeting by Dougherty, which included the city attorneys and the assistant city manager for consultation with the attorneys and discussing matters of litigation.
No action was taken.