Wornall Road Work
By John Sharp
The city broke ground Friday, July 20, on a nearly $4.1 million project to completely reconstruct Wornall Rd. from 85th to 89th St, which will include all new pavement, curbs and gutters, and sidewalks on both sides of the street.
Work on the project will continue through winter and should be finished by spring, according to David Miller, project manager for the City Public Works Department. Miller said two lanes of traffic will remain open during construction.
Miller said the project will include installing a new 12-inch water line, storm sewer upgrades and new LED street lighting. He said street and sidewalk construction will cost almost $3.4 million and water line construction will cost nearly $700,000.
Funding for the project is from the bond issue KCMO voters approved in April 2017. Speaking at the groundbreaking, City Councilman Scott Taylor noted this project would not have moved forward for several years, maybe not for decades, if voters hadn’t approved the bonds.
Spire Energy has been replacing its gas line at the construction site, but Mark Montgomery, assistant city engineer, said that work is nearing completion.
Spire had done extensive gas line work on Wornall earlier this year in the area from roughly 77th to 79th St., and the city also replaced a water line in that area and constructed sewer upgrades. That city project is nearing completion, and that stretch of Wornall should be repaved fairly quickly, according to Chris Hernandez, city communications director. However, he noted additional sewer work will continue in the area including crossing Wornall at 83rd Ter.
Work is expected to begin next year to reconstruct Wornall from 74th to 79th St., construct a realigned intersection at 75th & Wornall, reconfigure the parking lot at the northeast corner of that intersection and extend the Trolley Track Trail from 74th to 75th St.
Persons may go to www.kcmo.gov/wornall to get updates on all the city’s Wornall Rd. projects.