Other ARRA funded major projects under way are:

--K-61 to four lanes in McPherson County. In April, Koss Construction Co., Topeka, was awarded a $64.2 million contract for the McPherson County expansion work. The project is part of construction that will four-lane the entire section of K-61 between McPherson and Hutchinson by early 2012.

--U.S. 69 in Overland Park from I-35 to 103rd Street. The $82.3 million project will address congestion issues by reconstructing the interchange at 95 th Street and U.S. 69 and enhancing the corridor’s capacity.

--K-23 in Gove County. Venture Corporation of Great Bend was awarded the $7.8 million contract for improvements to 16 miles of K-23 in Gove County. The narrow, 50-year-old road lacks shoulders and has steep side slopes.

The reconstructed K-23 will incorporate components of KDOT’s ‘practical improvement’ philosophy. Asphalt will be added to the outer edge of the roadway as a practical alternative to expensive full width shoulders.

The last major ARRA funded project is tentatively scheduled to be let in March 2010 for the initial phase of four-lane construction work on K-18 between Fort Riley and Manhattan. The section of K-18 is one of the fasting growing corridors in the state.

I didn't know that.

Salt makes for problematic geology for road construction, because it dissolves in water, creating subsurface voids that can easily become sinkholes. This is a persistent problem on US 50, which sags and cracks over subsurface voids, requiring frequent repaving. Now a University of Kansas graduate student is using optical remote sensing technology to map the subterranean sinkholes, providing KDOT with valuable information about what's happening underneath the roadway. The researcher, A.J. Herrs, notes that drivers routinely pass over these underground voids without being aware of them:

Herrs did recommend one spot as the best opportunity to knowingly drive over a sinkhole in Reno County. “You’ll notice a very subtle swag in the road as you drive over Brandy Lake,” he said.

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President Obama wants to see one million electric cars on US highways by 2015. To that end, the Department of Energy established a $25 billion loan fund to help hybrid technologies make it to market--but none of that money has been disbursed. One awkward problem is the program's requirement that only "financially viable" projects and companies receive loans from the fund; this largely rules out US automakers.

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At least one Kansas community missed the filing deadline for federal stimulus funds. Prairie Village was sufficiently upset by the error to fire a city employee.

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You might recall that in January the American Society of Civil Engineers released their annual report card on American infrastructure. The US received a D. Now ASCE has released the detailed report behind the grade. Yikes.

The list of 77 projects is available here. It's one of many documents detailing KDOT's management of stimulus funds that are available on KDOT's Economic Stimulus page.

A week ago Secretary Miller testified to the U.S. House Budget Committee on the subject of highway funding. Her blog about her testimony is here. Today she blogged about the state's proposed primary seat belt law.

The primary seat belt proposal may be K-TOC's most commented-upon topic. It first surfaced in a blog from schneweis, which generated a brisk exchange of opposing viewpoints. Last week the proposed law became the subject of its own discussion group. In her blog, Secretary Miller sums the arguments in favor of the measure, chief among them the estimated 30 Kansas lives saved each year. Opponents insist that seat belt use is a personal choice, and recoil from providing another reason for law enforcement to pull over motorists.

There's also the little matter of the $11 million in federal funds that would flow into Kansas coffers if the measure passes before June 30. That's pocket change for the feds, but a hefty sum for Kansas.

Last year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that 83 percent of American drivers buckle up. The NHTSA report estimated that seat belt use in states with primary seat belt laws is 13 percent higher than in states without such a law. They further estimated that each one percent increase in national seat belt use saves about 270 lives every year. The NHTSA report is here.

Right here. And Secretary Miller's post discussing her opposition to federal earmarks in the current economy has already been linked to by at least one citizen-journalism website.

I know I'm a bit giddy about K-TOC and the whole transparency-in-government thing, but surely this is big news. I don't think a lot of state cabinet secretaries are blogging the whys and wherefores of their policy thinking--but I think a whole lot of state cabinet secretaries will be doing so in the next few years. (If anyone has examples of cabinet-level officials blogging about policy, please post them below.)

Stuff like this is why I think K-TOC is so cool.

Meanwhile, there's an interesting conversation about stimulus funding and railroads getting started over in Passenger Rail, feebcat has an update on bids for the Amelia Earhart Bridge project, and tomhein posted the Phase I Wichita ITS map.

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I've been working on the K-TOC User's Guide, and expect to post it to the wiki as soon as everyone at my end has had an opportunity to look it over. This will be my first serious engagement with the wiki, and I'm excited to get going.

The city of Basehor hoped for stimulus funds for several projects, but none of those projects appear on the funding list released by the Mid-America Regional Council on Tuesday. Tonight the Hays City Commission will be asked to authorize a request for stimulus money for a proposed reconstruction of a section of Vine Street; the assistant city manager said, "We'll take what we can get." Pittsburg has several projects the city believes qualify for stimulus funds, as does Wichita. Wichita's proposed Northwest Bypass didn't qualify for stimulus funding , although KDOT continues to acquire land for right-of-way for the project.

US 69 in Johnson County will receive stimulus support, but not US 69 in southeast Kansas. Nonetheless the project is moving ahead, as members of the US 69 Association traveled to Washington and learned of additional funding available through the federal Ominbus Appropriations Act. The same bill provides $475,000 for Topeka's transit system.

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Forbes published lists of the country's most congested cities and worst intersections. There aren't any shockers on either list. The most interesting part of the stories is that data suggests that congestion dropped sharply across the United States last year. (Unless you found yourself on the Cross-Bronx expressway at 5 p.m. on a Thursday.)

by Lt. Gov. Parkinson and Transportation Secretary Miller. Officials in Leavenworth County, concerned that their projects will be overlooked during distribution of the local piece of the funding package, drafted a resolution asking the Mid-America Regional Council to ensure that "special consideration be given to communities in the metro area which are classified as economically disadvantaged and which did not receive special KDOT funding from the state allocation of state level stimulus dollars.”

Johnson County learned that the proposed K-7 interchange at 55th Street and Johnson Drive won't receive stimulus funding, but other federal dollars are available, and the project is expected to let in September. And the US-69 project that will add 17 miles of two-lane highay between Ft. Scott and Arma, which was suspended last year, also failed to qualify for stimulus funds, but may get underway in the next year or so anyway.

Meantime new rules for corporate jet operations proposed by the Transportation Security Administration are raising hackles in the business community and among Kansas aviation professionals. Although some of the squawking is the usual corporate stuff--execs may have to check their golf clubs!--the proposed rules would also impede air ambulance and donor-organ delivery operations. The comment period for the new rules ends Friday.

Finally, KTOC All-Pro apshockey posted an 11-question Community Dialogue Survey in the 5-County Regional Transportation Study group. If you live in one of the affected counties, surf over and fill out the survey. Make yourself heard--that's what K-TOC is all about!

is back in the news!

Elsewhere on K-TOC, lisakoch posted a link for Title VI forms for transit providers. schneweis returned to the primary seat-belt bill fray, and brand-new KTOCer vejaw51 posted a comment on the discussion about folding the Turnpike Authority into KDOT.

The legislation is on the books, but some observers still question whether or not the stimulus devotes enough money to transportation infrastructure.

More soon.

the projects KDOT has selected to receive stimulus funding. Head on over to the discussion group if you have a comment or question. The announcement is less than an hour old as I write this, and already the phones are ringing here in the Public Affairs office--so we may be just a bit slower to answer questions today on the community.

We'll also be attempting our first video embed on K-TOC, as soon as video of the presser is available.

The indefatigable tomhein has already blogged one of the projects: the 47th Street corridor improvement project in south Wichita. (We're hoping to feature project-specific blogs for all the projects once the contracts have been let and the dust settles.) Yesterday KTOCer feebcat blogged about the letting of contracts for the US 50 expansion in Finney County.

I encourage everyone to check out schneweis's blog about the proposed bill to make failure to wear a seat belt a primary offense. Over the past three weeks, an excellent dialogue has developed about the balance between social responsibility and personal freedom. Take a minute to add your opinion to the mix.

We encountered our first major K-TOC technical snafu yesterday, when we discovered that our site tracking software was on the blink. It's fixed now, and soon we'll possess usage and traffic data for the community. If I see anything especially interesting, I'll post it here for your comments.

Norm Bowers updated his Stimulus Project Information for Counties and posted his latest Kansas County Road News.

KTOCer jkarash offers up an SME blog on Transportation Development Districts. New community member jonathanwinkler posted a thoughtful comment to " HB 2178 would abolish Kansas Turnpike Authority and shift its responsibilities to KDOT." And we've opened a group for the US-60 Corridor Study.

Drop us a line with comments, questions and suggestions. More tomorrow.