15 Aug Explanation of Kansas US83 “Tracker”

Specialized transportation carriers that routinely travel through Kansas received a letter earlier this month.  The main take away for many readers was this statement   “Carriers will be required, through their permit, to use a smartphone app to transmit and share their vehicle’s current location, length, width and height on KDOT’s public traveler information website, www.KanDrive.gov, and public mobile app.”

The letter went on to say that carriers with loads that are equal to or greater than 14’ wide or 126’ long will have instructions printed on their K-Trips permit to download and use the new KanDrive app to share their location while on US83. The letter was vague in giving an implementation date, only using this fall as a timeline.

US 83 is a critical freight corridor for agriculture, livestock and energy.  Current estimates state that commercial trucks and farm equipment total nearly half of the traffic on the 131 mile section from the Thomas/Sheridon line south to the Finney/Haskell line. On any given day there is a significant number of oversize loads impacting traffic on this corridor.

The Federal Highway Administration awarded a $6.7 million Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment grant to the Kansas Department of Transportation in September 2022. The grant will fund the KDOT Great Plains Rural Freight Technology Corridor Project (US 83 Advanced Technology Project). The goal of the project is to promote safety, improve economic productivity and efficiency.

While the new technologies will show live traffic details and alert drivers to oversize loads, the project clearly stated that the cameras will not be capable of reading licenses plates or using facial recognition. Additional resources on the project as well as contact information is provided below.

US 83 Advanced Technology Project Description

Great Plains Rural Freight Technology Corridor Project Concept of Operations

Letter to Oversize Load Carriers

Contacts:

Lisa Mussman-Northwest Public Affairs Manager
lisa.mussman@ks.gov

Yazmin Moreno-Southwest Public Affairs Manager
yazmin.moreno@ks.gov

Resources: Advanced Technology Project

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