$25 million Lee's Summit road improvement project draws criticism for delays; city responds

KSHB 41 News reporter Braden Bates covers parts of Jackson County, Missouri, including Lee's Summit. Send Braden a story idea by e-mail.

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The $25 million Pryor Road improvement project in Lee's Summit garnered some concerns from the neighborhood next door after over a year of construction closed a main road.

The project will widen the street from two lanes to four, with sidewalks and new storm water infrastructure.

City of Lee's Summit

While work is ongoing, some neighbors said it's been slow.

"It's contracted for 660 calendar days," Michael Park the director of the Public Works Department in Lee's Summit said.

But for residents in the Eagle Creek neighborhood, those days have added up to a significant daily inconvenience.

Karson Sowell and her family moved into the neighborhood two years ago, not long before construction began.

"I think it'll be great when it's over, but it is like a huge inconvenience, and it happened pretty soon after we moved in," Sowell said.

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The construction limited access in and out of the neighborhood, forcing residents to navigate the neighborhood through one spot.

"Yeah, we have a really big neighborhood. Right now, everyone has to go out one exit, turning right one way. Everyone comes in one exit, turning left and the same way," Sowell said.

Sowell's 6-year-old is also about to start kindergarten at a school down the street and the road outside that school is also set to go under construction. What is normally a short drive could become a much longer one.

"It should be a two-minute drive on a busy day. This is going to probably take us 15 or 20 minutes now," Sowell said.

The school district said its transportation department monitors all construction projects and will notify parents when changes are made.

The project did not begin smoothly, according to Park. An immediate 90-day suspension pushed back the start date after utility lines were uncovered. Utility delays have continued to be a recurring problem throughout construction.

Sowell questioned how a project of this scale could run into those kinds of surprises.

"I don't understand where the disconnect went there or how you have a multi-million dollar project and you still don't know where everything is in the ground and then you wait months to figure it out," Sowell said.

When asked why the utility lines were not identified before construction began, Park explained that his department relies on the information it is given by utility companies.

"We take their word when they say they're all clear, we move forward," Park said.

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He added that additional lines are sometimes found after work has already started, like what happened in this case.

After the initial 90 day project suspension two more delays happened, according to project updates.

Sowell also raised concerns about whether the delays would drive up the price tag for taxpayers.

"I hope it's not going to cost taxpayers a lot more money," Sowell said.

The short answer: it won't. If the project runs beyond the contract period, the financial burden falls on the contractor, not the public.

"If it goes beyond the contract period, it actually the money's come back to the taxpayers," Park said.

That would be if the contractor goes over their allotted 660 days to complete the project.

Park said the project is expected to be complete by the summer of 2027.

If you want to see more project updates from the City of Lee's Summit, click here for their project status page.

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