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Council adopts six-year street plan, adds Walker Road paving tied to incoming dairy facility
Summary
Seward approved a revised one- and six-year street plan that adds a Walker Road paving project to serve a new dairy processing facility expected to generate heavy truck traffic; council and staff discussed county coordination, maintenance constraints and a stalled trail crossing due to railroad rules.
The Seward City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved its one- and six-year street improvement plan, moving up several asphalt-overlay projects and adding a one-year Walker Road project intended to handle truck traffic from an incoming dairy processing facility.
Public works staff said the Walker Road addition responds to anticipated heavy use: the dairy plans to move as many as 26 inbound truckloads of raw milk and 40 outbound product trucks per day at full phase-one operation. Staff argued paving the rural section now (keeping a rural cross-section without curb, gutter or sidewalk) will reduce long-term maintenance headaches caused by buried manhole casings and improve safety and operations for heavy vehicles.
Council members pressed staff on coordination with Seward County to extend paving from the city limits to 294th Street and on the funding picture. Staff said prior discussions with the county had addressed Bluff Road and 252nd but that differing county priorities and funding constraints make simultaneous construction uncertain. Grants are limited, staff said, and the state will advise on some requirements; the Walker Road work was placed in the plan while a larger corridor solution remains contingent on intergovernmental cooperation.
The meeting also featured an extended explanation of the city's stalled trail project and railroad crossing issues. Staff said the railroad (BNSF) introduced a requirement mid-project that certain crossings be closed before permitting a trail crossing, a change that was not considered in the original design and which complicates state- and federally-funded trail approvals. Staff warned that canceling the current design would likely trigger repayment obligations (an engineering bill staff estimated at roughly $1 million) and that acquiring closures from neighboring jurisdictions has proven infeasible because crossings retain future value for those jurisdictions.
After debate the council approved the plan by roll call. The vote advances project schedules for bidding and funding steps; staff said additional coordination with county and state partners will continue.
