NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Hutchinson City Council gave direction to staff at its meeting on Tuesday to make the Avenue C bridge part of phase two of the overall project.
"Originally, it was scheduled to be independent," said Justin Karam, Construction Manager. "Now, we've brought it back up. Originally, how it came to the budgeting meeting when it was being discussed. When you're on site, looking at phase one, looking at phase two design, the median on Avenue C bridge is not appealing. The thought was, could we do something to vanity that median, so when we have these projects complete, it's not an eyesore for everybody that travels that pathway. That median repair has to be full depth. It's to the condition where we can't just put a bandaid on it to get us to a future project."
The reason the city can afford to do this now is because they have saved money on previous phases.
"I looked back at the 2024 budget," said Finance Director Angela Richard. "We had budgeted $5.5 million for phase two. Part of that was using approximately $600,000 of ARPA money. What was left over from phase one of Woodie Seat potentially looks to be about $800,000. The fact that we have more ARPA left over and the fact that they are estimating that phase two would actually be about $4.3 million, I think we would have about an extra million where we could use that toward the Avenue C bridge."
The Avenue C bridge is being retained over the K&O railroad tracks, the Avenue B and Avenue A bridges will be removed, with a roundabout at Avenue A as an entrance to Hutchinson.