Building the Road to a Transformational Win

City of Sterling, Kansas

On the north edge of Sterling, Kansas, a quiet tract of undeveloped farm ground became the starting point for one of the county’s most consequential economic development stories. When KMW Ltd., a precision manufacturer rooted in Sterling since 1965, chose the community for its new North American headquarters and state-of-the-art production facility, the decision represented far more than a corporate expansion. It was a landmark investment in rural Kansas, expected to bring major manufacturing capacity, long-term job growth, and renewed momentum to Rice County.

The opportunity was significant: a production campus valued at more than $105 million, with hundreds of thousands of square feet under roof and the potential to grow the local workforce to 485 employees. But before the first truck could reach the future facility, Sterling needed a critical piece of infrastructure, an access road designed solid enough to serve a modern manufacturing operation.

Kirkham Michael stepped into that pivotal moment with conceptual drawings and an opinion of probable cost that helped the City of Sterling secure $453,000 in construction funding through the Kansas Department of Transportation Economic Development Program. The result was a practical but effective design of a new concrete access road extending west from North Broadway Avenue, just south of its connection to K-14 Highway, to the future KMW parking lot.

Designed for daily industrial demand, the pavement was constructed of a 9-inch uniform concrete pavement on a granular base supported by geosynthetic fabric to accommodate an estimated 40 to 60 semi-trucks per day. In award-worthy fashion, the project demonstrates how disciplined infrastructure planning can unlock economic development: connecting a site, strengthening a community’s competitive position, and turning a recruitment victory into a buildable reality.

What makes the KMW Access Road stand out is not its length or its visibility, but its leverage. This is infrastructure doing exactly what great infrastructure should do, quietly enabling growth, supporting local jobs, and laying the groundwork for a generational investment in Sterling’s future.