Exit 157 on Interstate 70 at the northwest edge of Hays is set to transform beginning in spring 2020 from bare ground and narrow, hilly chalk roads to a $40 million travel plaza development.
The project calls for a fully outfitted travel plaza, along with restaurants, a hotel, an upscale RV park, retail shops and a two-lane concrete highway bypass.
The development by D&J Development LLC is a partnership of Hays businessman Dan Hess and Topeka commercial real estate developer John E. Brown.
The 40-acre project sits at the crossroads of two major traffic corridors, namely east-west I-70 and the planned $10.8 million Northwest Business Corridor. The Business Corridor, which was recently awarded $6.5 million in federal construction money, is being designed as a 55-mph bypass around Hays for trucks and superloads on heavily trafficked north-south US-183 highway.
(Read more: Leavenworth Times)