By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Barton County has completed various projects or has several in the works to improve roadway safety and the quality of driving through the county. In April, County Engineer Barry McManaman announced a Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) High-Risk Rural Roads Project that will include analysis of no-passing zones and signing improvement on 77 miles of county roads.
"It's nice to get these no-passing zones pinned down to where they actually should begin and end," he said. "It's a safety thing. Another thing is, if we were to apply for a project on one of our asphalt roads - for example, if we wanted to do a sign-replacement project that included replacing the existing no-passing pennants - one of their requirements has become you have to have a no-passing zone study that's documented. You have to have an engineering study."
The Barton County Road and Bridge Department does overlay and seal work on approximately one-fourth of the county roads each year. That work will take place in the southwest quadrant of the county in 2025, and that's where McManaman chose to have the study completed. No-passing zone studies are based on several variables, including speed. On a county blacktop with a 55-mile-per-hour speed limit, the study used to be completed by two vehicles separated by 900 feet of rope. The front car had a target three and a half feet off the ground.
"When the lead vehicle went over the crest of a hill, and when that target disappeared, that's when your no-passing zone starts," McManaman said. "You'd keep driving until the following vehicle got to the top of the hill enough to where they could once again see the target on the lead vehicle. That's where the no-passing zone ends."
The rope method has been replaced with more advanced technology to make roads even safer. Ellsworth's Kirkham Michael won the bid to do the study in Barton County next year. Once complete, KDOT will advertise the project and a contractor will complete the work next summer.