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Thursday, April 7, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Students propose bypass Future civil engineers tackle real-life problem
By Julie Adam
Kansan staff writer
KU civil engineering students are finding out that the road to designing a highway is sometimes filled with potholes.
Students in a highway engineering class taught by Tom Mulinazzi, associate dean of engineering, are trying to work out preliminary designs and recommendations for a proposed bypass on the east side of Lawrence. The proposed bypass would connect Kansas Highway 10 to Seventh Street.
"I was looking for a project for this semester, and each semester I like to come up with a real-life existing problem for students to look at," Mulnazzi said. "I decided to look at this proposed east bypass.
"The main purpose of this trafficway would be to serve some of the industry that is down along the riverfront." he said.
Mulinazzi put the students into groups of four, gave them a rough route location and told them the area where the bypass would be located,
but the students had to do the rest. And David Fletcher, Overland Park senior, said that his group could attest that doing the rest was not an easy job.
Fletcher said that his group had studied the area's soil, drainage capabilities and traffic and utilities problems.
problems.
He said that his group determined that the soil type along the Kansas River would not hold a highway. They are also trying to determine whether the area has adequate drainage to prevent flooding of a bypass if it were built.
Mulinazzi said that the project was difficult but that it was the type of work the students would be doing when they got jobs in the civil engineering field.
hearing field.
He said, "It's about as close to real life as they can get while still being in the classroom.
"They can't plug and chug into an equation and come up with an answer. There are a lot of unanswerable questions I can't answer and I won't answer because I'm the client,
and they are working for me.
"They've never encountered polluted creeks before in the classroom, and now they have a problem."
and students. Mulinazi said that not only the students would benefit from the project, but the city would benefit, too. The students are doing the preliminary study of the area and will present their findings and suggestions to a group of civil engineers who are working on the bypass.
The students' projects are due April 26 in City Hall, where they will share their findings with the group of civil engineers.
Mulinazi said that the engineers would give each of the students' projects a grade on the evidence they presented. Some of the suggestions will be used by the engineers when they are designing the bypass.
Mulinazzi said that projects his previous classes had done were an extension of 15th Street, the widening of Sixth Street, the extension of Naismith Drive and the widening of Ninth Street from Emery Road to Iowa Street.
Residents comment on latest plans for proposed Lawrence trafficway
By Christine Martin
Kansan staff writer
In the first public meeting on the subject in a year, Lawrence residents had a chance to comment last night on the latest plans for the proposed south Lawrence traffoway.
About 80 people attended the nightingale at South Junior High School, 2734 Avenue of the Americas, Brooklyn, NY.
Al Horn, a Douglas County transportation planning engineer, said the county had made some road alignment changes since a preliminary environmental impact statement was released last April.
the $38 million proposed traffic-
way would run 14.3 miles south and
west around Lawrence and connect
Kansas Highway 10 to the Kansas
Turnpike.
Horn said the road alignment changes included shifting the trafficway 120 feet south of the Baker Wetlands, which are south of 31st Street and east of K mart, 3106 Iowa St.
That shift, along with a closed
drainage system, would protect the area and its inhabitants, including endangered Northern crawfish frogs, Horn said.
Horn said.
An alignment shift in the trafficway 450 feet west of Elkin's Prairie, located east of Lawrence near U.S. Highway 40 and County Road 13, would protect an endangered prairie grass called Mead's milkweed, Horn said.
But some Lawrence residents who live near Elkin's Prairie are unhappy with the new alignments.
with the new barn. Jarvis Brink, who owns 30 acres of land southeast of the prairie, said the new alignment would bisect his land.
"How a little weed that nobody can find can take precedence over a family that has paid taxes for over 40 years is beyond me," Brink said. "I'm part of the environment just like milkweed is."
Fidel Jimenez, who owns 10 acres of land to the south of Brink's, said that the new alignment would cut through his house and that he was
upset that he was not consulted when the county made changes.
Chris McKenzie, Douglas County administrator, said that the purpose of the meeting was to hear residents' concerns.
"No one's land is going to be taken without direct discussion." McKenzie said. "We're not indifferent to your concerns."
But other residents were satisfied with the trafficway because of its goal to reduce congestion on 23rd Street.
Bob Walters, a representative of the Lawrence Motor Carriers Association, said the trafficway would relieve congestion on 23rd Street that often frustrated truck drivers.
The county must complete the final environmental impact statement and send it to the Kansas Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration before making definite plans for construction.
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