By MATT SMITHMIER

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The long-awaited, much-needed improvement to U.S. 69 in Johnson County, Kan. has achieved some significant milestones on its way to a 2026 completion.

In its first official joint venture, Emery Sapp & Sons partnered with Ames Construction (under the team name US69 Express Constructors) to tackle the $570 million Kansas Department of Transportation design-build project. As the first-ever express lanes project in Kansas, the work is designed to decrease congestion and increase safety on the busiest four-lane highway in Kansas, an area just southwest of Kansas City, Mo.

After beginning this past spring, construction is now a third complete, and design is scheduled to be finished by the end of December. Key stats from the recent work include:

• 7 bridges fully completed with 9 more started and under construction
• 210,000 square yards of concrete pavement placed (72,139 cubic yards)
• 500,000 cubic yards of dirt and rock moved
• 23,000 linear feet of storm pipe installed

“More than 225 craft workers have been on-site at our peak, and their hard work has allowed us to hit all our major milestones,” said Josh Doerhoff, executive vice president of operations for ESS. “We’ve been on an aggressive schedule to keep work moving, and we are grateful for the amazing partnership we have with the crews from Ames. This will truly be a defining project for the Kansas City region.”

The most recent accomplishments include the November reopening of all U.S. 69/135th Street interchange ramps in Overland Park, Kan., after being closed for several months. During the remainder of 2023 and the first few months of the new year, the crews will perform additional grading and bridge construction, followed by a large volume of concrete paving beginning in March 2024.

During the entire construction process, crews from both firms will grade and excavate approximately 1.1 million cubic yards throughout the process. The team will also construct a toll lane in each direction from 103rd to 151st streets in Overland Park, replace 50-year-old pavement, erect 11 noise walls and make improvements to the interchanges at College Boulevard, 119th Street, 135th Street, 143rd Street, 167th Street, Blue Valley Parkway and I-435 – totaling approximately 700,000 square yards of concrete paving and 250,000 cubic yards of concrete.