You’d think it might be kind of a big deal when a project to expand the K-96 freeway through east Wichita will carve about three acres of land off three Wichita parks.
But on Tuesday, the City Council will be asked to approve a finding by the Kansas Department of Transportation that the loss of parkland is an unavoidable and minimal impact from expanding the freeway from four to six lanes and redoing interchanges at Hillside, Oliver, Woodlawn, Rock, Webb, Greenwich, and 21st.
I seldom drive that segment of highway, which is about as far across Wichita from the southwest side where I live as it’s possible to be.
When I have driven it, I haven’t noticed anything seriously out of whack except where it intersects the I-135 freeway. That’s already being reconstructed as part of the overall improvement to the North Junction, where traffic from K-96 and I-135 and I-235 and K-254 all come together — historically Wichita’s worst bottleneck.
While the current K-96 might meet the needs of a casual user such as myself, the new expansion project appears justifiable given two major changes that have taken place out that way: 1) There’s been an explosion of commercial growth and 2) Even if we don’t need expansion right this minute, more growth is expected and freeway construction costs are likely not getting any cheaper if we wait.