(MSC News)--Four local area communities are among forty-six cities in Kansas selected to receive a combined total of just over $14 million in state funding through two Kansas Department of Transportation programs.

The City of Seneca will receive $400,000 through KDOT's Geometric Improvement Program to be used a drainage improvement project on U.S. Highway 36 from 1st Street to 11th Street.

City Administrator Matt Rehder says the funds cover the cost of what the city was lacking in making the project a reality. “This was a project that was planned to be occurring right now, actually,” Rehder tells MSC News. “The bids that came in for that project came in over the engineers estimate and so we were advised to apply for more funding to cover that gap, and that gap was $400,000, and so that's what the funds are for. The plan is to start that project sometime in 2015.”

The city of Leavenworth was awarded $750,000 for a construction project at the intersection of U.S. Highway 73 and Marion Street through the same program. The city will fund the remaining cost associated with the $950,000 project as required by the program.

Atchison will receive $200,000 through KDOT's City Connecting Links program, which funds improvements to state highways that extend through cities. Atchison City Manager Trey Cocking says the city “has designated that money for US 73 improvements,  however we are still working with KDOT to see what the exact scope of those improvements will be...currently we are planning on lumping two years worth of funding from the state together to make those improvements”. 

Cocking adds that the $600,000 project will likely take place in 2016. 

Oskaloosa will receive just over $144,000 through the program for a full depth asphalt surfacing and crosswalk improvement on a stretch of K-92 from Liberty Street to Delaware Street. The total cost is estimated around $192,000.