Monday, October 19, 2009

Drivers are facing a major roadblock in southern Sedgwick County. Two main thoroughfares are shut down.

'I was going to Haysville to dinner but I couldn't make it," said driver Dorsey Nichols.

County engineers designed a new plan to widen 63rd Street to four lanes from Broadway all the way to the county line. The project began in the spring. But the bridge over the Big Ditch on Hydraulic south of 63rd is 50 years old and needs replaced. The timing, they say, couldn't be helped.

"Sedgwick County is doing the best that we can to separate the two projects, " said County Public Works Director James Weber.

The projects are 80% funded by federal money. There's a deadline to get the projects started or the county would lose more than $6 million.

63rd Street is expected to be open to two lane traffic by Thanksgiving and finished completely by the spring. The bridge on Hydraulic won't be finished for 18 months.