KDOT OKs sidewalk plans along highway

Plans to build a sidewalk along U.S. Highway 75 (Arizona Avenue) in Holton are moving along, the Holton City Commission learned during its regular meeting on Monday.

Holton City Manager Teresa Riley told commissioners that the Kansas Department of Transportation had approved engineering services for the construction of a sidewalk along the west side of U.S. Highway 75 in Holton between Banner Road and Sixth Street.

Once the related documents are sent to Holton city officials for signatures and returned to KDOT, an engineer will create a design for the sidewalk, which will then go back to KDOT for approval. Riley said that if KDOT gives its final approval to the plans, the sidewalk could be completed in 2027.

“We’re so very lucky to have a grant that’s going to pay 100 percent of it,” said Riley, referring to a $2,115,513 award in state funds through the Transportation Alternatives grant program, administered by KDOT and provided by the Federal Highway Administration. The grant award was announced last October.

The sidewalk along U.S. 75 was first proposed to the city commission in February 2022 by by Holton Middle School teacher Erika Allen, whose work with the Kansas Association for Youth (KAY) program at HMS resulted in grants for such projects as the concrete fitness path at Countryside Park and the pickleball court at Rafters Park.

Conversation about the U.S. 75 sidewalk was spurrred by a comment from commissioner Clara Lovvorn, who noted that a previously stated concern about young people riding their bicycles along the Countryside Park fitness path led to a recommendation to remind bike riders that pedestrians on the path have the right of way.

“There are elderly people who get run off the path by kids on bikes,” Lovvorn said. “We have to figure out some kind of bicycle etiquette.”

There are currently no signs in place at Countryside Park prohibiting or regulating bicycle use on the concrete fitness path, although commissioners noted that motorized vehicles, excepting electric wheelchairs, are prohibited on the path.

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