Kansas transportation officials will have a public hearing Thursday for a planned improvement project along K-96 in northeast Wichita.

The meeting will be held from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Wichita State University’s Hughes Metropolitan Complex at 29th and Oliver.   Wichita area residents can look over the proposed improvements, provide input and talk with project staff.  There will not be a formal presentation and this will be a come-and-go event.

The project is in the preliminary design phase.  It will make improvements along a 9.5 mile section of K-96 from I-135 to the I-35 interchange.  The roadway will be expanded from four lanes to six, and the interchanges will be reconfigured at Hillside, Oliver, Woodlawn, Rock, Webb Road, Greenwich Road, and 21st Street.   The project is intended to enhance safety, improve capacity and relieve congestion.  Bids for the project are expected to go out in 2026.

This is the only modernization and expansion highway project in Wichita that is in development under the Eisenhower Legacy Transportation Program (IKE).