Work is well underway on the latest phase of the Wichita North Junction Project, an extensive Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) undertaking designed to vastly improve a heavily used interchange on the city’s north side. At this junction, four highways — Interstate 135, Interstate 235, K-254, and K-96 — meet at what had become a bottleneck intersection.
The North Junction is a vital component of the region’s transportation system, utilized by commuters, commercial freight traffic, visitors to the Wichita area, and other travelers. Each day, over 97,000 vehicles (including over 9,700 trucks) use the Wichita North Junction. By 2050, this figure is anticipated to rise to over 160,000 vehicles daily.
However, I-135, I-235, and K-254 were constructed in the 1960s and early 1970s, and K-96 was constructed in the early 1990s. Daily backups on northbound I-235 to southbound I-135 during the morning commuter rush, and from northbound I-135 to southbound I-235 during the afternoon rush, have become major issues. Additionally, the I-235 bridges over the Little Arkansas River have become functionally obsolete.
Following a concept study completed in 2015, KDOT began to develop a plan for the Wichita North Junction Project — structured for implementation in three phases — which would address multiple critical needs: enhancing safety by upgrading the interchange to meet current design criteria and to address high crash locations within the study area; improving traveler mobility by eliminating or reducing existing and future expected areas of congestion; improving infrastructure condition and reducing maintenance costs by rehabilitating or replacing aging bridges and roadways.
The phases of the overall Wichita North Junction Project are:
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- Green Project (Phase 1) - The $51 million Green Project was designed to set up I-235 to function with future phases of the project. This phase included replacing aging pavement, adding auxiliary lanes, removing the Seneca Street Bridge over Interstate 235, rebuilding the Broadway interchange, and replacing the Little Arkansas River and Broadway bridges. KDOT began construction in 2019, and the phase was completed in 2021.
- Gold Project Sub-Phase (Phase 2A) - This phase included replacement of the southbound I-135 ramp to southbound I-235, replacement of the northbound I-135 loop ramp to southbound I-235 with a two-lane flyover ramp, and extension of the acceleration lane on the westbound K-254 ramp to southbound I-135. Dondlinger Construction was the prime contractor on this $36 million phase of the project.
- Gold Project (Phase 2B) - Started in 2023 and, currently underway, this phase will provide a two-lane direct connection from northbound I-235 to eastbound K-96. It will replace the loop ramp from westbound K-96 to southbound I-135 with a two-lane flyover direct connection, along with widening southbound I-135 south of K-96. A new two-lane ramp will also be provided from westbound K-96 to northbound I-135.
Final completion is expected by the end of 2026.
A fourth project, the Purple Project (Phase 3), is part of the overall plan and is meant to complete the major infrastructure improvements. While preliminary design for this project is complete, there are no plans for further development or construction at this time.
The prime contractor on the $140 million project is Bergkamp King, a joint venture of Bob Bergkamp Construction of Wichita, Kansas, and King Construction of Hesston, Kansas. Design firms include: Professional Engineering Consultants, P.A. (prime consultant/engineering design, survey); HNTB Corporation (subconsultant/engineering design, maintenance of traffic); SRF (subconsultant/Intelligent Transportation Systems design); Wood (subconsultant/hydraulics and hydrology).
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“Sections of the new ramp from southbound I-135 to eastbound K-96 are now open, while the rest of the ramp from I-235 to eastbound K-96 is set to open by the end of this year,” said J.B. Wilson, KDOT Public Information Officer. “This is expected to help ease the daily traffic congestion in the area.
“Ongoing Gold Phase 2B work includes the construction of the new I-235 to eastbound K-96 ramp, the expansion of westbound K-96 to northbound I-135, the flyover from westbound K-96 to southbound I-135, and the second phase of the eastbound K-96 bridges over Hydraulic and the Union Pacific Mainline.”
Michael Ingalls, Project Lead Bridge Designer at Professional Engineering Consultants, P.A., highlighted the benefits motorists will realize as the North Junction Project is completed.
“The removal of the I-135 northbound to I-235 southbound loop ramp, replaced with a two-lane flyover ramp, reduces congestion in the p.m. peak,” he said. “It reduces the number of crashes that occurred at this location from traffic backed up on I-135 as well as accidents occurring at this ramp’s entrance to southbound I-235. This element of the overall project improves mobility, enhances safety, and reduces congestion and crashes.
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“A direct connection between I-235 northbound and K-96 eastbound removes the need for I-235 northbound traffic to enter I-135 southbound traffic before immediately exiting to K-96 eastbound. The existing configuration had a short weave distance between the entrance onto I-135 southbound and the exit ramp for K-96 eastbound traffic.
“The K-96 westbound to I-135 southbound ramp will also be a two-lane flyover ramp, removing another loop ramp for the same movement in the existing configuration. This loop ramp caused congestion and crashes during the a.m. peak. The proposed flyover will offer a near full-speed ramp to keep commuters moving seamlessly from K-96 to I-135. The K-96 eastbound to I-135 northbound ramp will improve site distance and improve safety at the entrance onto I-135 northbound.”
As Ingalls pointed out, the first two phases of the Wichita North Junction Project have addressed the most critical safety improvements and the areas of concern regarding the congestion of peak traffic movements. The remaining phase(s) of the project address additional mobility issues by removing left on- and off-ramps, while also replacing bridges that have reached the end of their service life.
“Traffic makes this project very complex in nature, with over 3,500 vehicles per hour on pretty much all locations of the project,” said Jarret Gowdy, Project Manager for the Bergkamp King joint venture. “Trying to keep our employees safe and the traveling public safe, managing traffic is a constant job. Due to the room required to fit wider, longer span bridges in tight areas, a couple of the bridges are being built in half on eastbound K-96 so that we can place traffic on the completed new sections, then demo the existing bridges, then finish building the second half of these bridges.”
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The project includes 11 new bridges, five of which span rail yards, mainlines, and spur tracks. Additionally, it features three widenings, seven mechanically stabilized earth retaining walls, four soldier pile walls, and one cast-in-place soil anchor wall. The scope also covers over 8,600 linear feet of storm sewer, 16,000 cubic yards of bridge concrete, 11.3 million pounds of bridge steel, 17,500 tons of asphalt, 23,000 tons of rip-rap, and 120,000 square yards of concrete pavement.
“Daily coordination between myself, subcontractors, and suppliers is crucial due to the amount of materials being brought into the project,” Gowdy said. “Some of the new headers for the bridge construction had over 50 feet of contractor-furnished material to ensure enough clearance for the bridges was provided. With this project needing over 1.3 million cubic yards of contractor-furnished [material], we were able to secure borrow sites in close proximity to the project — limiting the number of on-road semis needed to move that material, and [we] were able to build a large majority of the project with off-road equipment.”
“The project has required significant traffic impacts, including large detours for the closures of I-135 southbound and northbound, I-235 northbound, and K-96 eastbound for operations like girder erection and bridge demolition,” Wilson said. “Major closures have been limited to weekends to minimize disruption in North Wichita, with additional detours designed to mitigate as many issues as possible for these large closures.”
Gowdy said that the remainder of the year will have several major closures as the project progresses. Multiple entities are in constant communication to manage the detours taking place.
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According to Ingalls, the new bridges are designed for 100-year service life and include many appropriate preservation strategies to prevent corrosion, prevent concrete deterioration, and/or postpone the need for future maintenance while also reducing the severity of future maintenance or the complexity of future preservation/maintenance.
“The use of ClearCast stay-in-place forms for most of the yard bridges will increase initial cost for the forms, but will also reduce downtime for railroad traffic, and reduce the contractor’s time in the yards stripping forms,” Ingalls said. “The more unique aspect of these forms is that the bridge deck will be visible to KDOT’s in-service bridge inspectors throughout the life of the bridge decks.”
The grading operations have utilized large earthmoving equipment, including:
- Caterpillar 395 Excavator
- Caterpillar 745 Haul Trucks
- Custom Caterpillar 773 Haul Trucks with 70-ton belly dumps
- Caterpillar D6 Dozers
- Several rollers
- Support equipment
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Concrete paving was done with the following equipment:
- Gomaco 2600 Placers
- G&Z 850 and 600 Pavers
An average of 10 to 14 crawler cranes are consistently on site, with the following large cranes being used for girder erection over the Union Pacific railyards:
- Liebherr LTM 1650-8.1
- Liebherr 1400-7.1
- Owner: Kansas Department of Transportation
- Prime Contractor: Bergkamp King, a joint venture of Bob Bergkamp Construction, Wichita, Kansas, and King Construction, Hesston, Kansas
- Design Firms: Professional Engineering Consultants, P.A. (prime consultant/engineering design, survey); HNTB Corporation (subconsultant/engineering design, maintenance of traffic); SRF (subconsultant/Intelligent Transportation Systems design); Wood (subconsultant/hydraulics and hydrology)
- Key Subcontractors: Pearson Construction; AM Cohron & Sons; Ameritrack Rail; Cillessen & Sons; Decker Construction; Fulsom Brothers; Keller North America; Klaver Construction; Lange Fencing; Lindner; PBX Corporation; PEC Field Services; Phillips Southern Electric; Reece Construction; Reinforced Earth; Seeders, Inc.; Surveys, Inc.; Utility Maintenance Contractors, LLC Photos courtesy of Bergkamp Construction
