Cowley County will receive $601,000 for rural road safety improvements.
According to a news release Wednesday from the governor’s office in Topeka, nearly $9 million from the Kanas High-Risk Rural Roads program will go to 19 rural counties to improve the safety and efficiency of roads and local roadways.
“These investments will keep roads in rural areas safe and easy to travel, something that’s essential to supporting local businesses and making life better for Kansas families,” Governor Laura Kelly said.
Cowley County Administrator Lucas Goff told Cowley Post Thursday morning the monies, scheduled for FY2025, will be used south of Ark City for improvements to a collection of roadways dubbed locally as “Lovers Lane” and Cowley 16.
Goff said the roads — 41st, 51st, 61st, 302nd, 304th and 306th — saw heavier traffic when used as detour routes during the recent Madison Bridge replacement.
“This road was used heavily while the state was replacing the bridge on U.S. 166 West of Arkansas City,” Goff said. “Since then, it has seen an increase use of traffic and due to the use, shown the need for improvement and repair.”
The HRRR program is a federally-funded initiative designed to improve safety on rural roads through state and local partnerships, the news release said.
This year’s 19 HRRR projects were selected from 50 applications seeking $30.3 million in federal funds. Kansas HRRR funds cover 90-100 percent of the total project cost, with the counties making up the difference if necessary.
“Local agencies often do not have the resources needed to adequately address safety problems on the roads they own and operate,” Acting Transportation Secretary Calvin Reed said. “Working together provides opportunities for communities to strengthen their local road network to improve connections across the state.”
Projects in this program fall into one of two categories: Systemic (encompassing a local roadway network) or Site Specific. Projects in the Systemic category are 100% federally funded, and Site Specific projects are 90% federally funded.
The $601,000 for Cowley County, categized as Site Specific, will go to widen driving lanes, flatten ditch foreslopes and to install 6-inch white edge lines on three miles of paved major collectors.
