BY ANDY  TAYLOR
Montgomery County Chronicle

The area along U.S. 169 highway east and north of Coffeyville has the look of a major Tonka toy playground.

That’s because a six-mile stretch of the highway is filled with dozens of bulldozers, earth movers, backhoes, dump trucks and a myriad of other heavy equipment pieces that — if reduced to miniature size — would be the envy of the neighborhood toy box.
However, there is nothing miniature about this stretch of highway.

Work crews are busy expanding the highway in a $43.5 million project that is believed to be among the single-largest highway projects currently underway in Kansas.

“In terms of size and scope, it’s comparable to a highway project you would see perhaps in Johnson County or Wichita,” said David Owens, project manager for the U.S. 169 project.

When the highway project is completed in late 2011, U.S. 169 highway will look nothing like it does today. That’s because a portion of the highway — from the U.S. 166 intersection north to county road 2250 — is being relocated east of the current highway while another large section of road — from county road 2250 north to county road 2800 — will be moved west of the existing highway.

The project also involves the construction of six large structures, including an overpass over the South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad, a bridge over Potato Creek, and construction of a U.S. 169/166 intersection that includes an overpass.

The project also includes numerous smaller structures, such as box structures.

However, Owens said the early phase of the project is a huge task in itself. It entails relocating utilities — from natural gas lines to electric poles to even petroleum pipe lines — along the six-mile stretch of the project. Owens said the utility relocation effort started in January 2008 and is nearing completion.

“I’ve been looking at this phase of the project everyday on my computer screen, so I’m accustom to knowing what is being replaced,” he said. “But, it would boggle people’s minds to know how many utilities are being relocated.”

Part of the utility relocation includes the reconstruction of an entirely new electrical transmission line owned by the City of Coffeyville to the Coffeyville Industrial Park, he said.

The existing U.S. 169 highway from north of county road 2250 to south of county road 2800 will remain in place as an access road to the Coffeyville Industrial Park.

The project involves three primary construction firms, each which has a different task. Sherwood Construction is in charge of ground preparation, including the Herculean task of moving hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of dirt, while Beachner Construction is responsible for the construction of the structures, such as box culverts, overpasses and bridges. Koss Construction was  hired as the provider of asphalt once the highway is ready for its hard surface covering.

Ground preparation for the new highway began in April, Owens said.
Heavy equipment pieces have been hauling load after load of dirt to the ramps for the railroad overpass. The amount of dirt being moved is simply massive, Owens said, adding that some 740,000 cubic yards of dirt will be needed for the two sides of the ramps. So far, only about 250,000 cubic yards have been moved, he said.

Dirt for the ramps is being pulled from “borrow areas,” he said, near the current U.S. 169/166 highway intersection.

“Some of the older people know that area as ‘Worm Flats’,” said Owens. “While we were pulling dirt from that area, we also came across the foundations for the old movie drive-in that used to be located in that area.”