The Build Kansas Advisory Committee rejected a proposal from the city of Topeka to use federal grant funds to build seven bike lanes across the community.
The board rejected the $3.3 million price tag levied on the Build Kansas fund, which would have unlocked more than $13 million in U.S. Department of Transportation funds to construct the bike lanes. The city contributed $0 to the project, relying on the Build Kansas fund to contribute the entire local funding needed to qualify for the federal grant.
Rep. Kyle Hoffman, R-Coldwater, said he wanted to see some local cost share when he motioned to reject awarding the funds. He also said he isn't sure if the Build Kansas fund should go toward bike lanes.
“The bike lanes do frustrate me; it really frustrates me when we take a two-lane road, and we make half of it a bike lane and now all of a sudden we’re down to a one-way road," Hoffman said. "But my biggest issue with this is the city of Topeka is big enough that they should be putting in some matching funds.”
Sens. Usha Reddi, D-Manhattan, and Lindsay Vaughn, D-Overland Park, disagreed with naysayers on the committee, arguing that bike lanes help people get to work and improve quality of life for residents.
What is Build Kansas?
The Build Kansas Fund provides money to local governments that are applying for infrastructure-related grants, with a maximum investment of $200 million. It includes investments in water, transportation, energy, cybersecurity and broadband.
The Kansas Legislature approved a $200 million budget for the Build Kansas Fund to provide required local investments toward federal grants, namely from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Currently, the Build Kansas Award Fund has allocated $124 million across Kansas to entice federal grant funds. About $22 million were awarded the federal grant, $34 million was rejected by the grantor and $67 million is awaiting a response from the federal agency offering the grants.
In May, Topeka was awarded $4.3 million by the U.S. DOT to improve road safety, with Build Kansas providing more than $1 million in local matching funds.
What's in the bike plan?
Topeka sought to fund the bike path plan through the U.S. DOT’s Active Transportation Infrastructure Investment Program, which primarily funds bike paths and making sidewalks accessible to people using wheelchairs. The Build Kansas Fund Steering Committee, which makes suggestions to the legislator-staffed advisory committee, recommended the plan for approval.
If approved, it would have funded the fifth phase of the Topeka Bikeways project. It proposed seven different bike lane constructions that “will provide connectivity to workforce opportunities, transit routes, errands to basic needs like food, school and green spaces,” according to the application.
Topeka adopted a bikeway master plan in 2012, and voters approved a county-wide, half-cent sales tax to fund up to $3.5 million for bike projects.
A 2024 study from the city identified 10 corridors that could be reconfigured to better accommodate cyclists, but its ask to Build Kansas didn’t include three of them in its application to Build Kansas.
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