New, wider 17-mile stretch of K-150 opens years ago
Central Kansas late summer weather opened Kansas Highway 150 a few hours earlier than the Kansas Department of Transportation intended.
Doug Lind, engineering technician senior, KDOT, Marion, said the newly rebuilt highway opened at 2 a.m. Friday when "the storm blew the barricades down."
Lind said the highway was in "good shape, and we're running, moving good, with good traffic flow."
The cost of the 17-mile project in Marion and Chase counties was $18.4 million, he said — $6.6 million in Marion County, $11.8 million in Chase County.
The segment was opened just in time for the Labor Day holiday weekend. It had been closed for two years for construction.
The segment runs from U.S.-56 at Marion (east of the Pizza Hut) to U.S.-50 at Elmdale.
The Marion County portion of the project is eight miles long.
A great deal of earth was moved for the project. Hills were cut down, and valleys were filled.
The new concrete pavement is 9.5 inches thick, and the roadway is 30 feet wide. Brice Goebel of Marion, state construction engineer for the project, said this pavement was selected as the best poured in 2002, by the association representing Kansas and Missouri contractors.
There are two lanes, 12 feet wide, with three-foot concrete shoulders on each side and five feet of rock shoulder as well on each side, Goebel said.
Before rebuilding, the entire roadway was only 24 feet wide.
Goebel said between 100 and 200 workers were involved in the construction, along with the 12 or 13 people from KDOT at Marion.
The re-opening of K-150 is expected to relieve some of the truck traffic on U.S.-56.
The "new" highway is expected to be heavily traveled.
