KANSAS:Kansas continues rebuild, considers 3rd-lane

In the 1990s as a whole traffic increased about 50% from 20m trips to nearly 30m trips/year but growth is slowing. Wichita toward the southern end of the turnpike was heavily dependent on defense production and has lately had a stagnant economy.

The Kansas Turnpike Authority (KTA) last year made $3.3m in other revenues in 1999, concession rentals being the largest item, for total revenue of $64.8m. Toll collection cost $9.5m or 15.3% of toll revenues. Total operating expenses were $28.6m also including maintenance $7m, administration $5.1m, and policing $3.5m. KTA has $198m of revenue bonds outstanding, and paid $10.2m interest last year for a net income or profit of $16.5m.

87% of the trips are car trips and these constitute 81% of the vehicle miles. Commercial vehicles travel an average of 97km (60.5mi) per trip compared to cars 63km (40mi). Trucks pay an average of 6.6c/km (10.5c/mi) and cars 2.3c/km (3.6c/mi). Cars produce just over 60% of KTA’s revenue and trucks just under 40%.

The Turnpike has generous weight and size limits, running long triple-trailer units. Over 10% of its commercial vehicle revenue comes from trucks with more than five axles, 8-axle consists being the most lucrative.

The Turnpike has always been

financially self-supporting and has never accepted tax money. An honorable road!

Its 378km (236mi) of 2x2-lanes were built in just 22 months in 1955 and 1956 with 14 interchanges, most of the pavement being 250mm (10") of concrete. Seven more interchanges have been added and another, East Topeka, the most elaborate at $90m is now in construction. The Turnpike has six service areas. Topography is generally flat prairie country, but the turnpike passes through, or by, many of the state’s wilderness areas and parks. It crosses the historic Santa Fe and Oregon trails of the early treks to settle the west.

The Turnpike began life as an entirely intercity or rural road, linking the three largest cities in the state – Wichita, Topeka and Kansas City. At its southern end it becomes I-35 which heads south through Oklahoma to Dallas, San Antonio and Laredo at the Mexican border. The northerly/eastern end near Kansas City is the busiest, doubling as the I-70 route east-west and a commuter route into Topeka and Kansas City. Here daily traffic is up to 30k veh/day. From Kansas City there are trucking routes north via I-35 into Iowa and Minnesota and east to Indianapolis via I-70 with a divergence to Chicago. At the southern end near the Oklahoma border traffic is 14k veh/day. The sparsest traffic is 6.5 veh/day in the middle of the turnpike where it has the I-335 designation north of Emporia after I-35 has split off as a freeway heading directly to Kansas City, bypassing Topeka. Upgrades to KS-254 in the northern part of Wichita have also taken traffic from the turnpike in this area.

The turnpike was generally built with only a 6m (20') median which now has a concrete barrier providing a lightly paved 2.7m (9') inside shoulder each side. The KTA is in the eighth year of complete pavement reconstruction. The original 250mm (10") concrete slab is being torn up and turned into gravel to provide a 100mm (4") base layer (or ‘lift’) for 10.3m (34') of new pavement each side consisting of two 3.65m (12') travel lanes and a full depth 3m (10') righthand breakdown shoulder. On top of the base is installed an open draining asphalt course, and then 250mm (10") of solid asphalt.

Tom Wurdeman chief engineer at the Turnpike says their top asphalt specification is somewhat similar to the Federal Highway’s ‘Superpave’ and uses some of its testing methods. But like others who tried Superpave he says it is difficult to handle and compact properly, so the Turnpike intends to stick to its own specs. The Turnpike is getting its 450mm (18") of new pavement of 2x2-lanes plus full depth shoulders for $1.15m/centerline-km ($1.84m/centerline-mi). That’s $300k/lane-km ($470k/lane-mi). The complete pavement rebuild being spread over 15 to 20 years is therefore a $435m job.

KTA is making provision for third-laning outward by making the righthand shoulder full depth. The first section to go to three lanes each side will be Topeka to Lecompton on the western fringe of Lawrence. Then third-laning will later probably be continued into Kansas City. This is where the Turnpike has the I-70 designation. Point traffic flows are in the range 23k to 30k veh/day here now but projected to get over the 40k veh/day level before 2010 at which the third lane is thought warranted. (Kansans are spoilt: here in Frederick MD we suffer 80k veh/day on I-270’s 2x2 lanes and no widening is included in plans for 2020.)

Tolling

The Kansas Turnpike is one of only two pure trip-tolling or ‘ticket’ toll systems in the US – the New Jersey Turnpike being the other – and it has no plans to change that. It was an early adopter of electronic tolling (ET) using Amtech passive backscatter transponders with the brand name K-TAG. 114k transponders are on issue supporting 50k ET accounts with an 88/12 personal/business split. Prepayers get a 10% discount on the cash toll, while post-payers pay the same as cash toll payers. ET transactions are about 30% of total tolls taken. Dedicated ET lanes at the plazas are posted for 20mph and mixed ET/manual are posted 10mph.

Dying

1999 was a lousy year for deaths on the Kansas Turnpike – a record 21. That’s a horrible 16.7 deaths per billion miles traveled compared to the average of about 13 for rural freeways around the county. By comparison the New York State Thruway last year had 31 fatalities for 9.8b-veh-mi traveled, or 3.2 deaths per billion-veh-mi.

Lisa Callahan the turnpike spokesman says: “You can’t argue with the numbers. It was a bad year.”

In the previous nine years 73 people died in the Kansas Turnpike, an average of 8/year. In the 1980s 135 died, nearly 14/yr, so the trend was clearly down until 1999 – which is probably an aberration. Indeed this year safety has been better and in the first seven months there have been six deaths, an annual rate of about ten, or 8/b-mi, an improvement on the 13/b-veh--mi of rural freeways generally.

Of course those are the odds, but it is the nature of phenomena like traffic accidents that they aren’t evenly distributed. There are clusters. 1999 was a pretty normal year until October – 10 deaths in nine months. Then in the final three months of the year there were eleven fatalities, seven in December alone and four on a single day in December – in three quite unrelated accidents.

Causes

KTA provided us a chart the police put together. Alcohol and drugs were factors in just under half the accidents. About half were in dry conditions, another half in wet or snow (one). A third of those who died were not wearing seatbelts but another third were wearing them. Four smashes involved obvious risktaking – a wrong way entry, a U-turn and two involved pedestrians going on the turnpike. Excess speed is reported for a third of the fatal smashes.

No accident killed more than two people and by far the most common (13 out of 21) were single vehicle smashes in which the vehicle apparently left the roadway and hit a fixed roadside object.

The turnpike has continuous median barrier which prevent cross-over accidents and it has rumble strips outside the roadway edge lines which should help avert drowsy-driver run-offs.

Difficult to know what more can be done. Wider clear-zones, better buffering of roadside gear... free caffeinated coffee at rest-stops? (Contact: Lisa Callahan 316 682 4537 ksturnpike.com)