71 Highway Claims More Victims In Kansas City

[J N Winkler]

That is bullshit.  Total bullshit.  When I lived in Kansas City, I drove US 71 from Bannister Road to Blue Parkway and saw many, many black drivers on the highway.  These assholes who prevented the road from being built as a freeway just wanted to stick it to whitey.  Fuck racists of all colors.

Frankly, I don't see this ever being resolved until there is a general realization that through traffic includes black drivers and black drivers have just as much right as white drivers to the time savings that could be realized by eliminating the stoplights.

[Scott5114]

Or until traffic becomes suitably backed up that the residents of the area get as fed up with it as everybody else.

[bugo]

It's not if the road is going to be built but when.  It's obvious in the design of the road.  It was built as a Texas-style frontage road expressway with room for future freeway lanes in the middle.  Unfortunately, politics moves with the speed of a sloth in this country and it may be 50 years or more before the road is upgraded.

[ShawnP]

The backup's are already in the 2 mile plus range for the Gregory BLVD. morning rush and back up to Brush Creek during the afternoon rush. In all reality some extra money would have to spent on landscaping and asthetics to smooth over ruffled feathers in the neighborhood. Good is that their is plenty of land in the median to easily build without taking more right of way. All in all it could be done for 75 million or less and would really help move traffic and increase safety. As I said before the key to a upgrade is Emanual Clever to make the move.

[US71]

The backup's are already in the 2 mile plus range for the Gregory BLVD. morning rush and back up to Brush Creek during the afternoon rush. In all reality some extra money would have to spent on landscaping and asthetics to smooth over ruffled feathers in the neighborhood. Good is that their is plenty of land in the median to easily build without taking more right of way. All in all it could be done for 75 million or less and would really help move traffic and increase safety. As I said before the key to a upgrade is Emanual Clever to make the move.

So contact the city.

[Scott5114]

Better yet, try to get the Kansas City Star and KMBC on your side. Organize an "Upgrade 71" group. Hold protest events. This should be sufficient to get the Kansas City media's attention and hopefully attract more attention, and thus political pressure, to your cause. Good luck.

[US71]

FWIW, here is a news story about the last incident. Perhaps you can start here with your concerns:
http://voices.kansascity.com/entries/good-job-kc-police-obeyed-car-chase-rules//

[Anthony_JK]

The KC Star had extensive coverage some years ago when Bruce R. Watkins Drive (as the recently built portion of the US 71 urban expressway is called) opened.  My memory of it is somewhat hazy, and I doubt it is archived in a free source, but as I recall it was a standard "white men's road through black men's bedrooms" scenario.  MoDOT (or rather its predecessor agency) handled it with what seems to have been more than the usual lack of tact--minimum public information, EIS priced at $100 (a huge sum in the late 1960's) and otherwise difficult for interested people in the community to access, etc.--and eventually a lawsuit was filed, whose settlement dictated the present design of the road.  I suspect the traffic lights were marketed as "context-sensitive design," with community leaders agreeing to them because they thought the lights would make the road less attractive to traffic, thus keeping volumes and noise levels down, and MoDOT capitulating in order to salvage some semblance of the original plan.

Actually, probably not "context sensitive design", since that concept has only recently been developed as a means of mitigating impacts of freeways through "sensitive" areas.

Most likely, the folks in that neighborhood during the 70s when the freeway was originally proposed simply revolted over the idea of an elevated freeway "dividing" and "destroying" their commuity, and they were able to get the courts to support their view...thusly, the consent decree creating the existing setup of Bruce Watkins Drive.

There were some efforts during the late 2000's to get locals there to reconsider the consent decree and allow for completion of the 71 freeway, especially when Cleaver became mayor of KC...but apparently that fell on deaf ears.

I'm personally all for completing US 71 as a freeway all the way to downtown KC as an extension of I-49....but in order to reverse the consent decree and allow for final completion of that gap, you will absolutely have to negotiate with and respect the views of that community. You just can't simply ram it down their throats like they tried to do before, or you will get the same results.

Best idea would be going for an elevated freeway design using the modern "context sensitive solutions" model that Lafayette, Louisiana, used for their urban freeway project, the I-49 Connector (their website is here), or go for a depressed or "cut and cover" design that would reduce the visual and noise impact, but would cost more.

Either way, I'm with you on closing that gaping gap.


Anthony

[TheStranger]

[
Best idea would be going for an elevated freeway design using the modern "context sensitive solutions" model that Lafayette, Louisiana, used for their urban freeway project, the I-49 Connector (their website is here, or go for a depressed or "cut and cover" design that would reduce the visual and noise impact, but would cost more.

Either way, I'm with you on closing that gaping gap.


Anthony

I'm actually surprised that an elevated structure would be considered "context sensitive" - is this because of retained pedestrian access, small land footprint, something in that vein?  (In the Bay Area, the only new elevated freeway in the last 40 years is the Cypress Freeway realignment post-Loma Prieta, alongside the railroad tracks instead of through West Oakland.)

[Anthony_JK]

Well....I can't speak for the residents fronting Bruce Watkins Drive, but in Lafayette, the proposed I-49 Connector would have passed very close to the boundary of an historical district, and would have displaced more than a few homes and businesses fronting the existing Evangeline Thruway.  Plus, there was plenty of noise about how an elevated freeway would have been an eyesore and introduced noise impacts.

The I-49 Connector CSS plan was introduced during the design process both as a means of mitigating such impacts and as a means of involving those neighborhoods most impacted by the construction of I-49 through Lafayette in the process.  It's currently on hiatus due to concerns with the spacing between the mainline structures (the city wanted greater spacing, which would potentially increase ROW takings).


Anthony

[ShawnP]

Yes I am beating the drum again. If you have ever driven thru this dangerous area you will understand my passion on the subject. This road is very, very dangerous for motorists and pedestrians Look how many of the top accidents sites for KC are on the area of US 71 that needs upgrading.

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/01/05/2562421/kc-police-release-top-20-crash.html#

[Merged into existing thread on the subject. No need to have two threads on Page 1 on the same subject. -S.].