CCLIP Project

The City of Belle Plaine was awarded the CCLIP Grant for the reconstruction of K-55 in 2021. The City Connecting Link Improvement Program (CCLIP) is a federal and state-funded program that provides funds to cities to address deficiencies or improve a City Connecting Link on the State Highway System. A City Connecting Link is defined as any routing of the State Highway System that is located within the corporate limits of a City. All City Connecting Links are eligible under this program except those on the Interstate System and fully controlled access sections on the Freeway System.

On Feb. 13, 2023, the City of Belle Plaine notified residents via mail that the Kansas Department of Transportation will be making major improvements to the K-55/4th Avenue corridor in the coming months. And that the project would provide a new, wider concrete street, new curbs and gutters, improvements to storm drainage, and a walking path from Line to Logan.

To further help residents understand what would be happening and to address individual concerns, an open house was held on Feb. 21 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Belle Plaine Community Center, 528 N. Merchant. City staff, city council members, KDOT, design engineers, and utility representatives were in attendance to answer any questions. This was noticed as the last opportunity to address concerns, as the final engineers’ drawings would be submitted to KDOT on March 9, 2023.

On May 18, 2023, the City Council approved the Preliminary Engineering Agreement between the city, KDOT, and Benesch & Co., engineers. This was the third engineering agreement and included the extra work for the open house held for residents and the time spent on other questions.

On June 15. 2023 City Council authorized City staff to sign the necessary forms to move the project into its final stages.

Original plans slated the start date to be in April of 2023, but due to external delays, the project was stalled until now.

The entirety of the project is broken down into 4 phases. The most current information the city has is as follows.

 Phase I is the north half on the intersection of Line and 55.  It consists of storm sewer work on the north side of 55, west of Line and paving the north half of that intersection…..4-5 weeks duration

Phase 2 constructs the south half of the Line and 55 intersection……3-4 weeks duration

Phase 3 reconstructs K-55 from Line to Merchant……10-12 weeks duration.

Phase 4 reconstructs K-55 from Merchant to Logan….10-12 weeks duration.

As a measure of courtesy to the residents of Belle Plaine the City staff is making every effort to give notice as soon as we are made aware. As you can imagine, working with multiple agencies, crews, and individuals can present miscommunications and delays. The City of Belle Plaine will make every effort to help move the project along smoothly, however, we would advise residents that construction of this magnitude will inevitably have some delays. The City is grateful for the much-needed infrastructure updates and encourages citizens to tune into council meetings and check the website for the most current updates.