Concrete Roadways Offer Benefits to Overland Park Residents and the City

Every year, the City of Overland Park, Kansas invests in their infrastructure through the Neighborhood Streets Reconstruction Program (NSRP). The initiative targets residential streets that have passed their useful life and are no longer responding to routine maintenance. After extensive evaluation, the City decided to reconstruct streets in this program with concrete pavement, because of the numerous benefits it offered residents.

Affinis was selected for the project, which improved 5.59 lane miles of streets that abutted a city park. The scope included the removal of existing asphalt streets, sidewalks, and street lighting. It also included reconstructing the street with concrete, replacing or adding sidewalks, replacing street lights, and bike/hike trail improvements. A stormwater improvement project was combined with this effort to avoid impacting the same residents two years in a row.

The 2018 NSRP project was the second in the program to reconstruct existing asphalt residential streets in concrete. They selected concrete, because it offered a number of benefits:

• Cost: City staff analyzed the life cycle costs, including future maintenance of both asphalt and concrete roadways and determined concrete pavement was a more cost-effective option.
• Maintenance: While constructing concrete roads is less convenient for residents, it pays off in the long-term for neighborhoods, as they come with fewer anticipated maintenance operations.
• Safety: Concrete also improves public safety. Its natural properties increase reflective lighting from streetlights.

Due to the size of the project, the schedule was set for two construction seasons. The contractor, Miles Excavating Inc., was required to phase the project, so no two adjacent or parallel streets were under construction at the same time. This helped residents maintain access to the neighborhood and park during construction.

Typically, temporary residential access is maintained during the construction of asphalt projects like this one. However, given the roadway was reconstructed with concrete pavement, cure time required an unconventional approach. The contractor provided an on-demand transportation service in the form of an off-road vehicle between the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 12:00 a.m., transporting those who needed assistance back and forth between their vehicles and homes when direct access was limited.

To keep the project moving forward, weekly construction meetings were held with the city, consultant, contractor, and subcontractors to discuss the project and resolve issues in a timely manner. Continuous and on-going utility coordination efforts were completed to maintain the pace required. Construction was completed in the summer of 2019, which was several months before the contract completion.

With the new roadways, the City of Overland Park is able to uphold their standard for quality of life. By using concrete over asphalt, they saved money, reduced future maintenance, and increased safety.