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A driver was injured at 4:15 p.m. July 6 on I-635 southbound in Kansas City, Kan.
According to a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper’s report, a Chevrolet Cobalt was southbound on I-635, left the roadway, went into the embankment and struck a guardrail.
The driver, a 19-year-old Kansas City, Kan., woman, was injured and taken to a hospital.
On Monday, July 14, a joint replacement project will begin on the westbound I-670 over 7th Street bridge in Kansas City, Kan.
Project work includes the replacement of the bridge expansion joints, according to the Kansas Department of Transportation. Work will take place during daylight hours, Monday through Friday, with some occasional Saturday work.
Beginning at 9 a.m. on Monday, July 14, westbound I-670 over the 7th Street bridge from the Kansas-Missouri state line west to just past the west end of the bridge will be reduced to two open lanes, 24/7 round the clock, for joint replacement work throughout the project duration.
Traffic will be detoured through the project work zone via concrete barrier, signage and cones. The traffic control for this project will be directly adjacent to a Missouri Department of Transportation bridge repair project that has one lane of westbound I-670 over Genessee/Wyoming/Liberty/Beardsley Roads closed in the West Bottoms area.
Advance message boards will alert traffic to the westbound I-670 lane closure. There will be an 11-foot lane width restriction through the project work zone throughout the duration of the project. Drivers should expect delays during peak commute times and may wish to use alternate routes if possible, a KDOT spokesman said.
Updated daily traffic information for this project and the entire Kansas City Metro Area can be viewed online: www.ksdot.org/kcmetro/laneclose.asp.
The Kansas Department of Transportation urges all motorists to be alert, obey the warning signs, and slow down when approaching and driving through the project work zone.
PCI of St. Michael, Minn., is the primary contractor on this bridge joint repair project with a total contract cost of $750,000. The scheduled completion date for the overall project is late September 2014, weather permitting.
This project is funded by T-WORKS, the transportation program passed by the Kansas Legislature in May 2010.
The owners of an Overland Park hotel pleaded guilty Monday to a federal charge of employing undocumented workers, who they paid less than other employees, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said.
Munir Ahmad Chaudary, 53, and his wife, Rhonda R. Bridge, 41, both of Overland Park, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens for personal gain. The case was in U.S. District Court, Kansas City, Kan.
In their pleas, they admitted employing undocumented workers at two hotels they owned: A Clarion Hotel at 7000 W. 108th in Overland Park, and a Clarion Hotel at 11828 NW Plaza Circle in Kansas City, Mo. Chaudary and Bridge lowered their hotels’ operating costs and put themselves at a competitive advantage by not paying Social Security, Workers Compensation and unemployment insurance for the undocumented workers, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
“Unscrupulous employers are the driving force behind illegal immigration,” U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom. “This case should send a message that they are not above the law.”
According to court records, the investigation began in December 2011 when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Kansas Department of Revenue received information that the owners of the hotels were employing foreign nationals who not lawfully present in the United States. In June 2012, an undercover agent posing as an undocumented worker got a job at the Overland Park Hotel. He was hired even though he told his employers he was not authorized to work in the United States.
In 2011 and 2012 the defendants filed false and fraudulent Quarterly Wage Reports and Unemployment Tax Returns with the Kansas Department of Labor in which they under-reported the number of employees at the Overland Park hotel, the amount of total wages paid and the amount of unemployment taxes due.
Sentencing will be set for a later date. The defendants face a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison without parole and a fine up to $250,000. In addition, the government is seeking the forfeiture of any funds or property derived from the defendants’ illegal activities.
Grissom commended Homeland Security Investigations, the Kansas Department of Revenue, the Overland Park Police Department, the U.S. Department of Labor and Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Anderson for their work on the case.