Highway expansion project remains on schedule despite issue

 

They shouldn't be a roadblock, state highway officials say, but suddenly rising land prices could add more complications to a timely completion of the K-61 expansion.

The appraisal of land that has to be purchased for the nearly 22 miles of new four-lane corridor is done, said Ron Kaufman, the Kansas Department of Transportation's bureau chief of public involvement.

The actual purchase of the land, however, is just beginning.

Added to unrelenting costs for fuel and asphalt and the uncertainty of federal funding, "there could be delays" in getting the project completed, said KDOT spokesman Chris Hess.

"The message we've received from (KDOT) Secretary (Deb) Miller is that any project in the pipeline will be completed," Hess said. "The project is subject to getting adequate federal dollars. But based on the financial and community levels of investment already made, we'll ensure it gets done, even if it's delayed."

Scheduled to be completed by September, right-of-way acquisition is about a month behind schedule, Kaufman said. But that shouldn't delay construction bid openings set for mid-December and January 2009.

Hutchinson city officials, meanwhile, approved selling two tracts of land for $1 each to the state for the project. The first is along K-61 at the curve where Halstead Road turns into 23rd Avenue. The second is a tract in the quarter-section south of 43rd, also on the west side of the highway.

Numbers from the Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service show that from 1995 to 2004, the value of non-irrigated cropland grew less than 12 percent, cumulatively, or about $70 an acre. But from 2004 to 2007, however, cropland values shot up $255 per acre, or more than 38 percent.

That pushed the average value of non-irrigated cropland, which cost $595 an acre in 1995, to an average $920 an acre last year in central and south central Kansas.

Pastureland, while still cheaper than cropland, has grown even more dramatically.

In 1995, an acre of pasture in Reno County was worth an average $343 an acre. Values grew by more than 25 percent through 2004, but then jumped another 75 percent since. That acre of pasture in Reno County is now worth an average $720, the latest land survey shows.

A strong agricultural economy is expected to keep prices high, officials said.

Helping potentially offset that growth in values for KDOT, however, particularly in Reno County, said Jim Cannon, a Hutchinson appraiser accredited by the American Society of Appraisers, is stability in the price of land traditionally sought for housing.

"Land next to town that has a 'highest and best use value' as a subdivision, but on which no homes are being built, has not increased in value," Cannon said. "That land-use value has always been higher than for growing crops, but it has not benefited from the run up in the ag economy. And housing is kind of sick, so there is not the demand for subdivision land."

Much of the land in Reno County on the highway route falls into the suburban "best use" category, while the majority of land in McPherson County remains agricultural use, Cannon said.

It's important to note, Kaufman said, that land appraisals - and thus the price offered - are based on what comparable land has sold for, not on agricultural land surveys.

Right-of-way purchases typically account for 5 to 10 percent of a project, Kaufman said. He was unable to say how much of the estimated $217 million K-61 project cost was for land acquisition, or how much growth was built into those costs.

Appraisers completed much of their work between October and December, so prices should be fairly close to current values. Landowners have a right, however, Kaufman said, to continue negotiating price until the land is sold or taken through eminent domain.Of the 155 land tracts along the corridor, the state has bought 47. That includes 30 of the 72 tracts in Reno County, which will be the first segment of highway built, but just 17 of the 83 tracts in McPherson County.

"Fair market value is set by agreement between a willing seller and a willing buyer," Kaufman said. "We still have more than 100 negotiations to go through, and each one is different."

A bid opening on the first 8-mile section of the project is set for Dec. 15. The project in McPherson County is split in two, with the southern half set for a Jan. 15 opening and the northern portion on Feb. 16.