Kansas Highway Patrol seeks phased $51.7 million start to Salina campus reconfiguration

The Joint Committee on State Building Construction on Jan. 29 heard a presentation of the Salina campus needs assessment for the Kansas Highway Patrol, and the agency requested up to $51.7 million in state general funds to begin a phased reconfiguration of its Salina assets.

The assessment, produced by Clark and Anderson in partnership with Dewberry, concluded that seven of nine structures on the former Marymount College campus need major renovation or replacement, that the dispatch center is undersized and not hardened against severe weather, and that the Patrol’s long-term program needs could grow the current 88,000 square feet on four sites to roughly 375,000 square feet. ‘‘Even among those, we would say that the dispatch center is above all the highest priority,’’ said Merle Bridal, Executive Officer for the Kansas Highway Patrol.

Why it matters: The Marymount campus houses the Highway Patrol’s training academy, Troop C headquarters, a 24-hour dispatch operation and central supply. Those functions are spread across four Salina locations, which the agency says reduces efficiency and raises security and accessibility concerns. The agency’s recommended planning option would consolidate most functions on a new site while keeping the central evidence facility and the outdoor firearms range in their current locations.

Study findings and options

Rick Wise of Clark and Anderson, a lead author of the assessment, summarized four planning options with widely varying first-cost estimates. Option 1 would consolidate all programs onto a new campus and was estimated at about $443.6 million. Option 2 — the study team’s preferred approach and the one the agency concurs with — is a partial reconfiguration onto a new campus with an estimated first cost of $416.6 million. Option 3 would redevelop much of the existing Marymount campus at an estimated $327.2 million but would not include a full driving course. Option 4 would modernize existing facilities without meeting 25-year program needs, at an estimated $116.4 million.

The report identified three high-scoring candidate sites: KSU Salina (state-owned), the Kansas National Guard property (state-owned), and a large private parcel on Water Well Road; only the Water Well site can by itself contain the full program including a three-mile driving course. Wise said the team developed a four-phase implementation tied to agency priorities, starting with a replacement dispatch center ($24.9 million) and relocation of Troop C and Troop S headquarters ($26.8 million), followed by the training academy ($258.5 million) and the driving course ($106.4 million).

Program size, site and building condition

Jonathan Tallman of Dewberry described the programming and facility review that informed the report. The team documented operational issues across the Marymount campus and three other Salina locations, including insufficient classroom space, outdated technology systems, dormitories that do not meet current accessibility requirements, restrooms in need of replacement, an undersized and non-hardened dispatch center and a driving course that lacks the length needed for modern pursuit training. Tallman said the team estimated a 25-year program need of roughly 374,300–375,000 square feet and a consolidated campus footprint of roughly 80–87 acres compared with the current roughly 60 acres spread across four sites.

Agency request and next steps

Merle Bridal said the agency concurs with the study’s recommendation for planning option 2 but acknowledged the full $416.6 million estimate is unlikely to be provided in a single year. ‘‘We are requesting up to $51,700,000 SGF for the initial steps in that reconfiguration,’’ Bridal said, specifying that amount would support the dispatch center and troop headquarters relocations as an initial phase. Bridal said the agency would pursue phased funding (dispatch and troop headquarters in FY2026, the academy and central supply in a later biennium, and the driving course thereafter) and would open formal discussions with KSU Salina, the Kansas National Guard and KDOT about co-location on state property. Bridal also noted the agency will obtain appraisals for the Marymount campus sale, which could offset costs, and explore grant or federal funding for discrete nonconstruction items.

Legislative questions and constraints

Committee members asked whether the existing one-mile driving course on KDOT property could be used during phased construction; agency staff said it could serve in the interim but that long-term training goals require a three-mile course to allow higher-speed straightaways for pursuit training. Members also asked about alternatives to outright purchase; Wise and Bridal said the report’s cost estimates assume land purchase and construction and do not include lease-to-build scenarios. Bridal noted a Kansas statute requires three appraisals when selling or acquiring state property.

No formal appropriation or committee vote was recorded at the hearing; the agency’s request was presented for the committee’s consideration. The Highway Patrol said it will return to the budget process with phased funding requests aligned to the priorities identified in the assessment.