Update shared on U.S. 75 expansion project

Plans to expand U.S. Highway 75 north from the Holton city limits to its intersection with Kansas Highway 20 in Brown County to four lanes remain in the Kansas Department of Transportation’s “development pipeline,” although no definite timeline remains for getting work started on expanding the highway.

That’s what KDOT representatives Samantha Peters-Brown and Kate Craft told members of the Holton City Commission during their regular meeting on Monday evening at Holton City Hall, adding that while the 14-mile, four-lane expansion project is still on KDOT’s table, it “doesn’t necessarily mean that it will eventually be approved for construction,” as Craft noted.

Expanding U.S. 75 to four lanes, from Holton north into Brown County, is one of several projects in the “development pipeline” of KDOT’s Eisenhower Legacy Transportation Program, or IKE, according to Peters-Brown, public involvement specialist for KDOT. In that part of the program, preliminary engineering work on certain highway projects begins after being “studied in design,” she said.

Some — but not all — of the projects in the development pipeline are selected for construction and moved into the program’s “construction pipeline,” Peters-Brown said, and those projects that do not advance may remain in the development pipeline, which is replenished every two years.

Right now, there are 23 projects currently in the development pipeline, said Craft, KDOT public information officer. Having the U.S. 75 expansion project in the development pipeline will allow KDOT to begin preliminary engineering studies and analysis and “prepare the project for if and when it’s selected for the construction pipeline,” she added.

“We do want to emphasize that there’s currently no timeline for that,” Craft said. “There’s no timeline for funding and construction of the project.”

It was reported in March that Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly announced that the plan to expand U.S. 75 north of Holton had been added to KDOT’s IKE development pipeline and that $126 million in state funds had been earmarked for the expansion project, although it was noted on Monday that funding for construction had not yet been identified.

The four-lane expansion project — spurred by safety concerns along the highway, especially in areas near the Jackson Heights school district and Holton Community Hospital — had been ranked as a “high priority” in online discussions held earlier by KDOT, which invited residents of District I, including Jackson County and other parts of northeast Kansas, to give input on projects proposed as part of the IKE program.

The program, described by KDOT as “a nearly $10 billion investment in the future of Kansas,” focuses on preservation of existing highways and bridges, expansion and modernization projects and investments in economic development. KDOT awarded more than $127 million in 2023 to fund local projects to improve Kansas airports, bridges, rail, roadways and broadband infrastructure, it was reported.

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