Here (https://www.linecreekloudmouth.com/blog/kc-freeway-history/) are some posts about the history of built & unbuilt freeways in the Kansas City, MO\KS area.
I find the Route 735 proposal to be interesting. Maybe traffic would have used it to bypass and relieve congestion on the existing downtown freeways. And that route paralleling the US 71 Bruce R. Watkins Drive Freeway might have helped too. Alas, like every other city, Kansas City will have to make do with what freeways they already have.
It seems like MoDOT used to have an obsession with 7x5 numbering for freeways. I-170 used to be MO 725. Of course, there was MO 755/I-755 proposed back then too, and now first time I heard about MO 735.
Based on a map on Page 19 of 168 of a 1975 DEIS (https://hdl.handle.net/2027/ien.35556030138556 (https://hdl.handle.net/2027/ien.35556030138556)) for widening I-70 in Kansas between I-435 and I-670), it appears the MO 152 freeway was going to be part of an extension of MO 7.
I don't know where you're getting that MO 152 was supposed to be a MO 7 extension. MO 7 is north-south, and MO 152 is east-west, and it wouldn't make sense for MO 7 to make an abrupt turn like that. It would also have had to find a way to hop over the river. The proposed MO 152 freeway is marked as the "Proposed Route T". MO 152 continues west of I-435 as Route T, and this was probably where it got that name.
I lived in Newport News 1991_96, on a trip to the ODU library, I found an original copy of the 1947 KC plan on the shelf.
Quote from: bugo on July 17, 2021, 05:47:03 PM
I don't know where you're getting that MO 152 was supposed to be a MO 7 extension. MO 7 is north-south, and MO 152 is east-west, and it wouldn't make sense for MO 7 to make an abrupt turn like that. It would also have had to find a way to hop over the river. The proposed MO 152 freeway is marked as the "Proposed Route T". MO 152 continues west of I-435 as Route T, and this was probably where it got that name.
From text that could have been clearer?
A sharp turn/transition from north-south to east west doesn't seem out of the question. MO 291 used to have such a turn near Liberty (prior to being cut back to Exit 45 on I-435, see the KC insert on the 1972 MO map (https://www.modot.org/sites/default/files/documents/1972_back%5B1%5D.pdf)) and MO 7 already has a bit turn around Harrison. It also doesn't seem impossible that there could have been another Missouri River crossing proposed as part of some old outer belt plan, given the era of the document.
Quote from: Revive 755 on July 17, 2021, 10:46:23 PM
Quote from: bugo on July 17, 2021, 05:47:03 PM
I don't know where you're getting that MO 152 was supposed to be a MO 7 extension. MO 7 is north-south, and MO 152 is east-west, and it wouldn't make sense for MO 7 to make an abrupt turn like that. It would also have had to find a way to hop over the river. The proposed MO 152 freeway is marked as the "Proposed Route T". MO 152 continues west of I-435 as Route T, and this was probably where it got that name.
From text that could have been clearer?
A sharp turn/transition from north-south to east west doesn't seem out of the question. MO 291 used to have such a turn near Liberty (prior to being cut back to Exit 45 on I-435, see the KC insert on the 1972 MO map (https://www.modot.org/sites/default/files/documents/1972_back%5B1%5D.pdf)) and MO 7 already has a bit turn around Harrison. It also doesn't seem impossible that there could have been another Missouri River crossing proposed as part of some old outer belt plan, given the era of the document.
I remember seeing a Missouri state highway map that showed some proposed highways that were supposed to be built. One of them was a new routing of MO 7 from North of Lake City, MO, between Buckner, MO & Fort Osage, MO (Where it would have intersected with US 24.). From there, it would have crossed the Missouri River on a new bridge & ended at MO 210. I don't remember where on the internet I saw that map, though.
SM-J737P
I think Kansas City has enough freeways as it is. They already have paved their way out of congestion.
Quote from: kernals12 on July 18, 2021, 09:15:35 AM
I think Kansas City has enough freeways as it is. They already have paved their way out of congestion.
Not really, chief...
Quote from: kernals12 on July 18, 2021, 09:15:35 AM
I think Kansas City has enough freeways as it is. They already have paved their way out of congestion.
Have you ever been to Kansas City? Have you ever driven there? Have you ever lived there? I did live there for 2 years, and more freeways would have made my life much simpler.
Quote from: kernals12 on July 18, 2021, 09:15:35 AM
I think Kansas City has enough freeways as it is. They already have paved their way out of congestion.
Ever driven through "Malfunction Junction" where all the highway seem to meet? It's a pain the arse.
Quote from: US71 on July 22, 2021, 10:37:09 PM
Quote from: kernals12 on July 18, 2021, 09:15:35 AM
I think Kansas City has enough freeways as it is. They already have paved their way out of congestion.
Ever driven through "Malfunction Junction" where all the highway seem to meet? It's a pain the arse.
Quote from: bugo on July 22, 2021, 09:30:44 PM
Quote from: kernals12 on July 18, 2021, 09:15:35 AM
I think Kansas City has enough freeways as it is. They already have paved their way out of congestion.
Have you ever been to Kansas City? Have you ever driven there? Have you ever lived there? I did live there for 2 years, and more freeways would have made my life much simpler.
Quote from: TheHighwayMan394 on July 21, 2021, 12:44:13 AM
Quote from: kernals12 on July 18, 2021, 09:15:35 AM
I think Kansas City has enough freeways as it is. They already have paved their way out of congestion.
Not really, chief...
Kansas City is literally the least congested city in the world (http://www.newgeography.com/content/004504-traffic-congestion-world-10-worst-and-best-cities).
^ You've never driven there, and it shows.
Least congested =/= never congested.
Read the link, man.
Quote
All but one of the 10 least congested large cities in the Tom Tom report are in the United States. The least congested is Kansas City, with a peak period index of 19.5, indicating that a 30 minute trip in free flow is likely to take 36 minutes due to congestion. Kansas City has one of the most comprehensive freeway systems in the United States and has a highly dispersed employment base. US cities also occupy the second through the sixth least congested positions (Cleveland, Indianapolis, Memphis, Louisville and St. Louis). Spain's Valencia is the seventh least congested city, while the eighth through 10th positions are taken by Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and Detroit.
Quote from: kernals12 on July 23, 2021, 10:48:32 PM
Kansas City is literally the least congested city in the world (http://www.newgeography.com/content/004504-traffic-congestion-world-10-worst-and-best-cities).
Depends on whom you ask. This site (https://livability.com/top-10/culture/10-awesome-cities-with-little-to-no-traffic-yes-really) doesn't list it in its top ten. Neither does this one (https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/13/wallethub-study-us-cities-with-the-best-and-worst-traffic.html). This has Kansas City as number twenty five (https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-cities-to-drive-in/13964). I lived there for two years, and I commuted to work the entire time, and certain highways get badly congested. I lived at the US 71/Route W (Bannister Road) interchange and worked on Blue Parkway, east of US 71. The three traffic lights on US 71 cause long backups. I quickly learned it was faster to take the three lane with center turn lane Bannister Road than to take the US 71 "expressway". Certain parts of town are worse than others, but to claim there isn't much congestion in KC is not accurate. I-435 eastbound at the Grandview Triangle also becomes stop and go as far west as Wornall Road if not past the state line. I also used to work at I-435 and Metcalf, and I've witnessed the congestion myself. As sprjus4 asked, have you driven there?
Oklahoma City is almost certainly less congested than Kansas City.
Quote from: Scott5114 on July 28, 2021, 01:25:12 AM
Oklahoma City is almost certainly less congested than Kansas City.
Tulsa definitely is, by a long shot.
Kansas City doesn't really need new freeways, it just needs some of the existing ones rebuilt. There's a Final EIS (http://contribute.modot.mo.gov/kansascity/metroi70/documents/2016-08-22I-70SecondTierEISPacket.pdf) (PDF link) for a plan to rebuild I-70 between downtown and I-435, and the interchange at I-435 and the Manchester Bridges have already been done. Similar projects probably need to be done for I-29 and I-35 in the Northland. I'm thinking of The New I-64 in St. Louis (Still Highway Farty to me!) as an example.
And yes, completing the freeway on US 71 between 51st and 75th Streets would be safer for nearby residents and drivers, but it simply isn't going to happen anytime soon.
Kansas City doesn't need more freeways, it just needs the existing freeways to be brought up to 21st-century standards. Add lanes where it will help the most and won't be cost-prohibitive, smooth the curves and hills, eliminate left exits, lengthen ramps, etc. That will do more for the money than a brand-new freeway somewhere.
Quote from: Sani on July 28, 2021, 08:24:39 PM
Still Highway Farty to me!
Once Highway Farty, always Highway Farty!
Quote from: Sani on July 28, 2021, 08:24:39 PM
There's a Final EIS (http://contribute.modot.mo.gov/kansascity/metroi70/documents/2016-08-22I-70SecondTierEISPacket.pdf) (PDF link) for a plan to rebuild I-70 between downtown and I-435
Which one and which one? :awesomeface:
I'm being a smartass, the link answers all. But I thought it was funny to talk about I-70 between downtown and I-435 in the context of KC without specifying which direction from which downtown. :-P
Now if they could get the court order vacated so Interstate 49 could be extended to a proper terminus at the Interstate 70/670 interchange, that would be good enough for me.
Quote from: The Ghostbuster on July 30, 2021, 02:12:26 PM
Now if they could get the court order vacated so Interstate 49 could be extended to a proper terminus at the Interstate 70/670 interchange, that would be good enough for me.
But first, those last remaining at-grades on Bruce Watkins Drive have to go. It most likely will be decades before any of that happens, and as long as the people who put in the court order are alive, I-49 can't go any further than it is now.
Just put the freeway up above the at-grades, on a viaduct. That way the residents get what they want and all the rest of us get what we want.
^ To appease the residents, wouldn't it make more sense to trench the freeway? To not create an eye sore?
Quote from: sprjus4 on July 30, 2021, 10:31:54 PM
^ To appease the residents, wouldn't it make more sense to trench the freeway? To not create an eye sore?
Or if money was no issue, cap it.
Quote from: Revive 755 on July 30, 2021, 11:10:02 PM
Quote from: sprjus4 on July 30, 2021, 10:31:54 PM
^ To appease the residents, wouldn't it make more sense to trench the freeway? To not create an eye sore?
Or if money was no issue, cap it.
The locals don't want a freeway going through their neighborhood, either elevated or in a trench. They would probably accept a cap, but Missouri won't pay for that. The current ROW already has something of a trench, so elevating US 71 would be harder than a trench.