On Tuesday, April 19, Kansas Transportation Secretary Mike King joined local officials and area legislators to announce the start of work to expand U.S. 54 to a four-lane expressway east of Liberal. The event will begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Mid-America Air Museum, 200 West Second Street in Liberal.

Secretary King was joined by Mayor Joe Denoyer, Liberal, Seward County Commission Chairman Nathan McCaffrey, State Representative Shannon Francis and State Senator Garrett Love. The public is invited to the event.

Work is underway on the current project which will build about 3-½ miles of four-lane divided highway from southwest of Seward County Road O to near Seward County Road R (Park Road) and will include improved access to the Arkalon Energy Plant. This is the middle segment of three expressway projects to be built, from Seward County Road 6 (Tucker Road) to and across the Cimarron River, including a second bridge over the Cimarron. The other two projects are scheduled to be let to contract in 2018.