The “Point of Rocks” monument outside Dodge City is a regional landmark: a rock outcropping with a silhouetted steel band of horsemen announcing you’re in Dodge City. However, a $69 million dollar highway improvement project could mean the leveling of the icon according to The Kansas City Star.
The Kansas Department of Transportation plans to add two new lanes, as well as a 60-foot-wide median between the old and new lanes of U.S. Highway 50 from Cimarron to Dodge City.
The current plan calls for leveling the icon, but KDOT officials have considered alternatives and their costs. Choices are limited. The only direction the highway can be expanded is north because the Burlington Northern Santa Fe train track and Arkansas River flood plain is to the south.
The option of having the landmark declared a national historic site has been explored by Gary Kraisinger, a Great Western Cattle Trail Association board member. He said because of previous changes to the site for the highway make it ineligible to designation.
Construction for the highway expansion is scheduled to being in 2018.
