WaKEENEY -- The next phase to reconstruct Barclay Avenue will begin next week, according to the city of WaKeeney and the Kansas Department of Transportation construction office in Hays.

"This is the second of four separate phases," said KDOT Construction Engineer John Riggins.

He said this phase of the project includes the closure of Barclay Avenue from Tenth through Sixth streets.

"This section of Barclay will be closed June 16 but will be reopened prior to closing any other sections of Barclay Ave," he said.

Local and through traffic will be detoured onto Interstate 70 for the remainder of the project, which should be completed this fall.

WaKeeney City Administrator Hardy Howard realizes the inconvenience of road construction.

"Local residents will have to find alternate routes around the work," Howard said. "And this, unfortunately, will take folks a few blocks out of their way for a while. But this is an important project to improve one of the busiest streets in our community."

For more information regarding the project, contact KDOT Area Three Construction Engineer John Riggins at (785) 625-9718 or johnr@ksdot.org in Hays; Kristen Brands, KDOT's northwest Kansas public affairs manager, at (785) 871-2137 or kristenb@ksdot.org in Norton; or Howard at (785) 743-5791.