By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — If there were any thoughts of eliminating the Woodie Seat Freeway and removing the bridges that are a part of that city road, they were all but eliminated by the Hutchinson City Council during Tuesday’s agenda session.
Although no decision was officially made, plans to end the freeway at Avenue F and moving traffic onto other streets was all but killed after the city engineering department got word that the Union Pacific Railroad would not give any approval for the increase in traffic that would occur.
“There’s some information that we picked up along the way that might be compelling in guiding the governing body as to which direction they want to go (with the freeway)," City Manager Jeff Cantrell said. "It’s not something I can put in front of you in a formal document of denial, but in conversations with the permitting side of the railroad . . . what they have said was 'we can’t formally deny you because we don’t have anything formal in front of us, but anticipate a denial when it does come in front of us.'”
Assistant City Engineer Jessica Lowe says that the city had requested proposals from engineers to see how ending the freeway at Avenue F would work, but were told that it would be a waste of the nearly $150,000 cost, telling the city that the railroad would never go for it.
“The overwhelming response from them was 'don’t do this, you won’t get the answer you want from the railroad. We’re happy to do the study but it’s not going to give you the answer that you want,'” Lowe said. “We went forward with the qualification process and in the meantime was finally able to get a hold of someone with the railroad and I talked with them extensively about this, and once they understood what we were saying . . . it was a hard no.”
With that, the city is down to four options for renovating the freeway. Option one would be a single-lane intersection at Avenue A with stop signs. Option two would be the same only with two lanes of traffic. Option three would be the original plan to have a round-a-bout at the intersection with Avenue A. All three options would include eliminating the bridges at Avenues A and B and closing Avenue B. The fourth option is to leave things as they are and replace the Avenue B bridge, make major renovations to Avenue A bridge and make repairs to the road bed and center islands.
The task force connected to the project and the Avenue A neighborhood will be meeting Thursday to further discuss the project and the available options. The city council said it wants to wait for that meeting before addressing the matter again.
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