Kennerly Road Project Sparks Debate

Residents fearing that the Kennerly Road reconstruction will create a “racetrack” came out to a public form at the last week.

Terry Todd, engineer at Cochran Engineering, and Anne Lamitola, Sunset Hills city engineer/public works director presented to residents regarding the upcoming project. The city went through a process to apply for grant funding to rehabilitate the road from the Weber Hill commuter lots area to Sappington Road and was awarded $977,201 of federal monies.

“Basically what we have in mind is some pavement widening for safety, some selected guardrails, storm water improvements where we have some nasty roadside ditches, reconstruction of a curve where they have had some nasty accidents, resurfacing, striping, trees, mulching and sodding,” Lamitola said. 

MoDOT, who is the administrator of the federal funds, have been out with Cochran surveying and looking at the design. Public works officials have been meeting once a month to go over issues regarding the project. 

“The city has a lot of different requirements that we have to meet to garner their (MoDOT’s) approval,” Lamitola said.

There also are some right of way acquisition areas where the city needs to obtain some land from some of the owners. Temporary easements will be put in place during construction, and there will be some permanent right of way areas. 

“Nothing is sent in stone at this point in time. We’ve batted some ideas around and I want to show you what we are thinking,” Todd said.

He took residents through a power point presentation of each section of Kennerly Road, outlining project ideas throughout the way. Shoulders, overlay, narrow lanes, guardrails, sidewalks and new Metropolitan Sewer District water quality standards were addressed by Todd. Cochran also has a goal to minimize utility relocations in road widened areas, and has plans to work with Ameren UE to discuss those options.

A dangerous hill close to Oak Crest Estates also is on Cochran’s agenda. 

“We don’t know right now looking at preliminary budget numbers if we can do that (lower the hill) or not,” Todd said. “We want to improve sight distance by knocking three feet off that hill.”

Several long-time residents of Kennerly Road and adjacent streets raised concern about motorists who already speed down Kennerly Road. They feel the safer aspects such as widening and resurfacing will only exacerbate the speeding issue. Lamitola said that anything the city can do to improve the road within the budget, they want to do.

Current speed limit along Kennerly Road is 35 mph.

“We are not looking to raise the speed limit. What we are trying to do is make the road safe,” she said. “The purpose of this project is road preservation. That’s where most of the money is going—that’s the lion’s share of it. Our city subdivision regulations are 26 ft. wide pavements are on any new street and that’s what we strive for on any of our roads and we don’t have this on this roadway.” 

Lamitola also explained that an increase in traffic will not come from the Kennerly Road project, but the Fenton Bridge project, which is opening in about six months.

Residents expressed noise concerns due to proposed rumble strips, but Todd said that even though they give you advanced warning of when you are going off the road, they may not be the best solution in this case.

“We are still debating rumble strips. It will take up to six inches of our pavement where there typically is no shoulder. If you hit rumble strip in that case, you are gone,” Todd said.

Residents affected by the project will receive ongoing letters during the construction to let them know what is going on. Cochran and the city also plans to keep residents immediately affected with construction within a week’s time notified.

Construction is planned to begin in 2013.