KCRag Forum

shinatoo wrote:Should put the stadiums over the trench. Two birds, one stone. BOOM! *

*I have not even looked to see if there is anywhere near enough room.

Update: Nope. BOOM! redacted.

geeman68 wrote:

shinatoo wrote:

ldai_phs wrote:With inflation, cost of capping would go from $145-175 Million in 2009 Report to $160-$195 Million Today.

Better money spent on that then an arena or stadium, in my opinion.

i agree. this would be used on the daily, compared to a stadium that would only be used a couple days a year.

The Royals Stadium would not be a "couple" days a year. But I like capping the loop and adding parks or additional builds on top versus a stadium.[/quote]
I was thinking more along the lines of a billion dollar football stadium like
a certain someone is building.

shinatoo wrote:

shinatoo wrote:Should put the stadiums over the trench. Two birds, one stone. BOOM! *

*I have not even looked to see if there is anywhere near enough room.

Update: Nope. BOOM! redacted.

I thought about that.
Then I saw that per the 2009 city research, a three story building is $1400 per square foot to put over it.

Anybody read the "development boom" piece in the KCBJ today? Was just curious what they said and I don't have a paid subscription (not ashamed to be a news mooch).

atticus23 wrote:Anybody read the "development boom" piece in the KCBJ today? Was just curious what they said and I don't have a paid subscription (not ashamed to be a news mooch).

http://kcrag.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=19 ... 29#p550529

harbinger911 wrote:There appears to be subtopic stories about how to fill that land back up including a baseball stadium.
But who is the twit at KCBJ that created this scenario photo?
A 3rd grader could have done better and at least placed it in the area that has all of those surface lots.
http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/p ... ntown.html

Wow. That's an embarrassing rendering and a stupid location. GJ KCBJ.

the problem with keeping an interstate and trying build on top of it lies with a MoDOT restriction on using air rights for private development. that was the primary reason south loop link ended up as green space. decommissioning the right-of-way entirely avoids that problem.

In today's environment, constructing buildings occupied with a lot of people, over an active interstate, also is fraught with terrorism concerns. One can probably design the decks to absorb a large explosion and prevent a building collapse, but it would add even more expense. Even then, you are creating a situation where a massive explosion could create enough damage, and a bottleneck in a major interstate, to shut it down for months. Look at how much damage was done in the Oklahoma City attack using a rental truck full of agricultural fertilizer. Having a large office building full of people would be very different than parking garages, or a deck park--since the risk would be much higher. During most times of the day, a parking garage, or deck park, would probably not have as many people in it.

Clearing a possible collapsed office building would take much longer after the fact, since bodies would have to be removed--adding to the delay in reopening the interstate. Even if any buildings over the freeway trench didn't collapse, there would probably be concerns that enough damage could be done that the freeway decks could no longer support them safely, and the buildings would still have to be demolished.

Prior to 9/11, a large hospital expansion was built over the FDR Drive in New York City. I doubt that would be allowed today.

With the amount of available undeveloped land near downtown Kansas City, it would be much cheaper to construct new buildings elsewhere.

Thank you! I didn't know if there was a North Loop thread or not so I posted in this one. That being said, this is a very interesting concept, but from those financing projections would the major taxing jurisdictions be in favor or would they see it as frivolous? (Maybe time for a "Capping the North Loop" thread?)

i think this was posted in a P&L thread, but since it shows a scaled down proposal for capping 670...



the actual conversation about revisiting the cap does not contemplate closing walnut street (thankfully).

a public engagement component is starting soon. cost of the 2-block segment shown below is $65-70 million in current dollars.

DaveKCMO wrote:a public engagement component is starting soon. cost of the 2-block segment shown below is $65-70 million in current dollars.

That would be awesome. Downtown KC desperately needs green space.

I love the cordish development as it's great for downtown KC, but the city should really step in and force them to be a bit more architecturally creative.

Those buildings are going to be the face of the skyline and the are going end up looking pretty ugly if they just build three glass boxes on top of parking structures there. Not to mention they won't interact well with the park if the cap the freeway. Also, the city should not allow all the huge ONE LIGHT, TWO LIGHT, THREE LIGHT signs. Those are going to look hideous just like the cowboy sign in the Live block. City should have never allowed that.

With the amount of incentives Coridish gets from the city, I would think they would cooperate. Still great to see this stuff moving forward. The park, plus a W and the Hyatt hotel will be pretty amazing.

Feds approve covering part of I-70 through Denver. $1.2billion project. Also includes work on the highway itself.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/lo ... -in-denver

How come we're not first? Ours is already lowered!

Our freeway cap project would probably have a greater beneficial effect than Denver's project. Denver's cap is in a lower-density residential neighborhood.

Our cap is in a higher-density downtown area where the cap would encourage additional real estate development, and eventually greater tax revenue for City coffers. It would also vastly improve the aesthetic experience for people living and working near the interstate--as well as visitors attending conventions.

It would help stitch together two downtown neighborhoods. The Crossroads is increasingly becoming a destination for conventioneers as more restaurants and bars open, and making the area as pedestrian friendly is in the City's interest.

grovester wrote:How come we're not first? Ours is already lowered!

And with a Cordish guy in the Trump administration - you think it would be a no brainer.

It would be pretty easy to get fed approval. They would only sign off on it. The problem with KC is the same old thing. There is still a pretty serious lack of leadership at city hall and marc to get stuff like this done and figure out a way to fund it in a city where residents are so anti change and anti spend money on anything. (ie, airport transit etc.)

The city needs to aggressively put a plan together, get with Cordish and other area property owners, fund preliminary design and environmental studies and get it going.

The city needs to do several years of prelim design and studies before even going to the feds.

KCMO for some reason has never taken a lot of initiation on highway projects and lets MoDot take care of it. So KCMO typically ends up with the standard bare bones Modot improvements which tend to be based off 1950's highway design practices. KCMO needs to step up and take a more leadership role on state infrastructure in the city which is what most cities do today. They are VERY involved in these types of projects. KCMO is very passive.

I still don't think the city has done any real planning or design for any of the downtown loop including the north loop. I've seen some pretty pics, but nothing more, but meanwhile, MoDot is moving forward with their plans to do the exact opposite of what should be done by increasing the footprint of the north loop rather than pull the interstates off it and giving it a road diet. The most recent plans I have seen for the north loop and broadway bridge would be a disaster for the urban fabric of downtown if implemented.

GRID wrote:I still don't think the city has done any real planning or design for any of the downtown loop including the north loop.

http://kcmo.gov/wp-content/uploads/2013 ... asrept.pdf

Look for some announcements later this year. Privately funded studies are ongoing without public funds.

ldai_phs wrote:Look for some announcements later this year. Privately funded studies are ongoing without public funds.

Per KCMO Manager at today's Downtowners luncheon.