By KEN CARPENTER
Great Bend Post
Construction began last week north of Great Bend to widen a section of Northwest 50 Road where a concrete drainage box causes a sharp drop-off near the edge of the pavement. That section of the road just east of Northwest 10 Avenue has been closed to traffic. However, motorists will still have access to the area east of the construction zone from the intersection of Northwest 50 Road and Washington Street. Barton County Engineer Barry McManaman explains.
“There’s going to be signing saying the road is closed to through traffic, but you can go on west,” McManaman said. “So anybody that lives in those houses or if you want to go to the two cemeteries, you can do so. But if you go on west of the cemeteries out where that box is, there’s going to be barricades across the road so you cannot go through.”
In addition to extending the drainage box 16 feet on each side of the roadway, road crews will use earthwork and asphalt surfacing to construct gentler shoulder slopes to eliminate the vertical drop-offs that are currently next to the edges of the road.
A map showing the detour route around the construction area can be found with this story at greatbendpost.com.
Another construction project is also set to begin soon to improve safety at the intersection of Washington Street and Juco Road. Together, both projects will cost just under $604,000. Ninety percent of that cost is covered by the Kansas Department of Transportation’s High-Risk Rural Roads program. Barton County will pay the remaining ten percent or approximately $61,000.