RIDGEVIEW ROAD EXTENSION OPENS One new mile of Ridgeview Road has opened, providing a vital connection between Prairie Star Parkway and Kansas Highway 10 and opening new opportunities for development. Construction on the four-lane, divided arterial roadway and surrounding improvements began in 2018. The $29.9 million project included: • A 250-foot bridge over Little Mill Creek with a de-icing system that can be remotely operated. • Construction of 99th Street from Britton Street west to Ridgeview Road. • Construction of 98th Street, which will provide a second access point into the Meritex subsurface development. • A new entrance to the Mill Creek
Streamway Park trailhead. • Intersection improvements at Ridgeview Road and Prairie Star Parkway. • A 10-foot-wide multiuse trail along the west side of Ridgeview Road from Prairie Star Parkway to K-10. • Widened outside lanes to accommodate on-street bicyclists. • Two acres of wetlands west of Ridgeview Road and south of Mill Creek Streamway Park, which replace half an acre of wetlands disturbed by the project and mitigate runoff from the new road’s pavement. City staff worked with a design-build team from Pyramid Contractors, Renaissance Infrastructure Consulting, H.W. Lochner, Estes Consulting, Pfefferkorn Engineering
ROCKY ROAD To build Ridgeview Road and surrounding improvements, the contractor had to blast rock up to 33 feet deep and fill dirt up to 57 feet. Nearly 350,000 cubic yards of rock and soil were moved, which is close to 106 Olympic swimming pools. Much of the old mining waste and debris was incorporated into the roadway fill. 8
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& Environmental and Terracon to complete the project. Supplementary design and project manager consultant services were provided by HNTB Corporation and Indigo Design. The area’s rocky, undulated terrain and subsurface mining posed challenges when designing and building the roads. But difficult terrain wasn’t the only challenge encountered on this project — 2019’s heavy spring and summer rains and early freezing temperatures caused the road’s opening to be delayed from November 2019. A formal event celebrating this achievement could not be held due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. While maintaining social distancing guidelines, members of the City Council cut a ribbon
