Whenever any board of county commissioners in counties of not less than 130,000 shall desire to permanently improve a road in their county on which a benefit-district petition has not been filed, they shall adopt a resolution to that effect and designate a benefit district and said resolution shall be published in an official county paper circulating in the district affected for three consecutive weeks following its adoption: Provided, That said benefit district so ordered shall not exceed three and one half miles on either side of the road to be constructed: And provided further, That said resolution shall designate the road or section of road to be improved by name and terminal points and other specially fixed locations and shall designate and describe the lands within the proposed benefit district, the type or types of permanent improvement and width or widths of roadway desired and the number of annual assessments to be levied upon the lands in the benefit district in payment thereof, which shall not be less than ten nor more than twenty.

Thirty days after the first publication of such resolution the board of county commissioners shall proceed with the improvement of such road unless a protest signed by legal resident landowners of fifty-one percent of the land in such benefit district shall have been filed with the county clerk: And provided further, That the board of county commissioners shall have no authority by resolution to create a road benefit district as herein provided nor to improve a road or portion thereof under the provisions of this act, except for the purpose of constructing or permanently improving a road to fill in a gap existing between the ends of two permanently improved highways, or constructing or improving a road in a gap between the ends of a permanently improved highway and a permanently improved street in any city or town within the county or constructing or permanently improving a road in a gap existing between the ends of two sections of a permanently improved highway, or a gap between the ends of two permanently improved sections of a highway: Provided, That such gap does not exceed one and one-eighth miles in length. In improving a road under the provisions of this act in all matters not specifically covered hereby the board of county commissioners shall proceed in accordance with the provisions of article 7 of chapter 68 of the Kansas Statutes Annotated.