Building Bridges?

Perry Community Hosts Officials from KDOT to Discuss Hwy 24 Project

September 19th found nearly 100 Jefferson County residents attending a community meeting with Greg Schieber, Deputy Secretary of Transportation, and Leroy Koehn, District Engineer of NE Kansas, to discuss the progress of the Hwy 24 project.

Here are the important details from the meeting:

· The bridge was scheduled to be completed by the end of November 2023.

· Due to anomalies discovered with the installation of the load pillars, the project is now scheduled to be completed in May of 2024.

o Citizens had to press the KDOT representatives to be more specific than “anomalies”.

o The representatives finally admitted that process used for pouring the concrete was done incorrectly by a subcontractor.

o It took two additional months to develop a remediation plan to bring the pillars into compliance with safety standards.

o A KDOT inspector is on site each day of construction to ensure it is done correctly. When pressed why the inspector did not stop the improper pouring and ensure compliance, the representatives responded that KDOT does not dictate the means or methods the contractor uses to complete a job. Say what?!

· On a positive note, the bridge will be completed in its entirety to the south of the portion of the old bridge residents are currently using.

o Once complete, the bridge to the north will be torn down and will not need to be replaced.

· The surfacing work that is set to be done on Hwy 24 will move forward at this time.

o Once the bridge is complete, the contractor will have to tie the newly asphalted portion of the road into the new bridge.

The concerns that citizens expressed to the KDOT officials included:

· Residents inability to turn onto Linn Road from the west due to the long line of traffic waiting near the high school for the light to change blocking the path. With Linn Road residents having to come to a complete stop and wait on traffic to clear in the driving lane, that causes both lanes to be backed up with traffic.

· As recent as this weekend, there was a traffic accident due to an individual being forced to stop in the east bound lane to wait for traffic to clear to go north on Linn Road.

· Lack of ability to turn right on red in the west bound lane of 24 at Ferguson Road has caused a great deal of frustration. Several residents expressed their belief that a right turn lane would help alleviate traffic being back up to the high school.

· The high school is struggling with the traffic overload at dismissal time. Both students who drive and buses find it very difficult to get out of the parking lot after school.

· KDOT confirmed that emergency vehicles leaving Perry to the west would need to stop and wait for the light to turn green before they can proceed.

Work will continue on both the bridge and the road until reaching a temperature low enough to negatively impact the quality of the finished product. The contract contains a financial penalty of $1,000 a day for each day beyond the November 30th expected completion date. If the bridge is completed by June 1, the penalty would be $183,000.

Not our bridge.

The penalty amount will be paid to KDOT’s general fund by the Bettis Asphalt and Construction which is serving as the contractor. The penalty amounts to less that 1.5% of the $12,613,930 project. Fines from tickets issued in the construction zone by the Kansas Highway Patrol are deposited into the state’s general fund. Those who are not financially benefiting from the construction project are the businesses of Perry. A repres

entative of Bernie’s stated that their income has been deeply slashed as have Casey’s and Dollar General.

Elected county officials who attended the meeting were Repres

entative Ellis, Senator Francisco, County Commissioners Malm and Walbridge and Sheriff Herrig. Francisco, Walbridge and Herrig contributed to the conversation while Ellis appeared to motion with his hands for the meeting to be brought to a close while citizens were still seeking answers to their questions.

Bottom line, Jefferson County citizens will need to find an extra helping of patience for the next eight months.