Prairie Village Connects Neighbors and Improves Quality of Life with Paving Program

The City of Prairie Village’s paving program was developed to maintain quality roadways for residents. It also creates more connectivity for pedestrians by adding sidewalks and preserves the integrity of local streets with stormwater run-off management. For the last 10 years, we have been partnering with the city on these neighborhood improvements as part of the program.

Drawing from their database, the city starts by compiling a list of the streets for evaluation. Then, our team begins the project by walking one roadway with the inspector. Together, we look for sidewalk in need of repair and curbs that should be replaced, along with other indicators of the road’s condition.

After the initial walk-through, our team completes a review of the remaining streets on our own. The number of roads we analyze varies from year to year. Typically, we are examining 10 to 15 streets. However, those numbers can fluctuate based on city budget or other factors.

For this program, we look at the street as a whole, comparing the percentage needing improvement to the overall condition. This helps us assess whether it needs to be completely redone or if only parts should be updated. During this evaluation, the city reaches out to residents to see if they want sidewalks added. We also consider the impacts and utilities. We use this information to make a recommendation to the city as to whether or not a mill and overlay or complete reconstruction is needed.

With this effort, we have upgraded a number of streets. To Belinder, we added sidewalks to both sides of the road and connected them to existing pathways. We installed a parabolic mirror on El Monte Circle to make pulling out and onto 75th Street safer for residents. We also added concrete pavement to the bulb portion of the El Monte Circle cul-de-sac to increase pavement life from the turning and shoving movements caused by cars and trash trucks navigating the cul-de-sac.

Working in established neighborhoods adds complexity to the project. Two important factors involve communicating with residents and minimizing impacts to driveways and yards with elevations for ADA compliance. Partnering with utilities to design around or relocate streetlights and power poles are other critical components. Managing details like these creates a seamless program for the city. All these improvements ultimately add up to improved quality of life for Prairie Village residents.