Everybody knows the downtown loop needs a LOT of work. Most of the onramps and offramps are too close toether and too short for safety.
Here is a redesign of the loop that I made today. It also incorporates building a new southbound Broadway bridge and using the existing bridge for northbound traffic and lots of traffic circles.
Also made Independence Ave a thoroughfare that goes down to the west bottoms
Also tried to add some infill lots along the highway to try and tie downtown to city market area together better. maybe a few buildings could be built over the highway too.
longviewmo wrote:If we get rid of the north side of the loop, is there much sense in keeping the west side of the loop?
There are a ton of people who still use the Broadway Bridge, though much fewer who use the viaduct. But the Broadway Bridge has to stay (that is, with a replacement). Plus, you aren't really cutting Downtown off from any other neighborhoods with that highway since it's a cliff that divides Downtown from the West Bottoms anyway.
Taking out the I-70 on the north side is about the most we can do in trimming our highway diet in Downtown, unless we also cut 71 highway down. The rest are badly needed.
longviewmo wrote:If we get rid of the north side of the loop, is there much sense in keeping the west side of the loop?
There's two ways into downtown from the south if you remove it.
21st, Truman Road, 14th
The former is a horrible place to put a ton of people into downtown. 14th isn't that great because it hits the convention district. So most people would use Truman.
The last thing we want to do is create a choke point on the grid.
By keeping the west side there's 12th St and people can go up to a new road design. You end up with five parallel routes into downtown from the south.
longviewmo wrote:If we get rid of the north side of the loop, is there much sense in keeping the west side of the loop?
There's two ways into downtown from the south if you remove it.
21st, Truman Road, 14th
The former is a horrible place to put a ton of people into downtown. 14th isn't that great because it hits the convention district. So most people would use Truman.
The last thing we want to do is create a choke point on the grid.
By keeping the west side there's 12th St and people can go up to a new road design. You end up with five parallel routes into downtown from the south.
We have to keep in mind that these highways aren't just about getting people to Downtown, but they are also routes to get people from one side of the area to the other. Taking out the west side of the loop renders 169 useless for commuters, because most of those commuters aren't going to be commuting to the Loop, and therefore, taking 169 and the Broadway Bridge would just take them into Downtown, like the Heart of America bridge does.
169/Broadway already dumps into Downtown and it doesn't work very well. The best solution would be taking out I-70 and running 169/Broadway Bridge just west of the River Market, bypassing Downtown, and running along the west side of the loop. I remember that someone drew up a concept on Reddit a while back. I can sketch one out for a visual of what I'm thinking about, but I can't do it at the moment.
UrbanKC wrote:
I remember that someone drew up a concept on Reddit a while back. I can sketch one out for a visual of what I'm thinking about, but I can't do it at the moment.
That reddit map was literally posted on this thread on this page
From KCBJ, 2/19 regarding the possibility of using land reclaimed from the loop for a baseball stadium:
But the Kansas City Royals’ lease at Kauffman expires in 2031 — the same year a three-eighth-cent sales tax funding the public’s $425 million contribution to the renovations is scheduled to sunset.
“It will take so long to decommission the highway, demolish it, reroute roads and then build a ballpark that you are all the way out to the (Royals’) lease horizon,” he (David Brain, who recently co-chaired ULI Kansas City’s Northloop Technical Assistance Panel) said.
But Brain said the linear nature of the 32-acre strip of right of way that the ULI panel was asked to focus on precluded in-depth discussion of a future downtown ballpark.
But don’t write off the site near Eighth and Main, said Tower Properties CEO Buzz Willard, whose firm assembled the 8-plus acres of surface parking in the area. Even without the Executive Plaza site, he said, the parking lots and adjacent North Loop acreage represent ample room for a baseball stadium.
“I haven’t given up on that idea for (the Tower Properties lots),” Willard said.
Depressing that Willard can envision those northside parking lots being left empty until almost 2031.
missingkc wrote:Depressing that Willard can envision those northside parking lots being left empty until almost 2031.
now you see the problem with these big ideas that require large swaths of land? same thing happened with south loop. the 40-year promise of a makeover prevented anything incremental.
Depends whether the plan was put together and a guarantee was in place early enough. Having a carrot dangling out in the distance, even if it's a decade away would really push the pace of development in nearby areas enough that we'd probably love those empty parking lots. For now I like that they're pitching the area to companies to use as a major downtown corporate campus. It will be a great day if either plan materializes.
harbinger911 wrote:San Diego, Austin, Denver would have this shithole highway leveled and ready for cranes in 2 years.
This city is such a worthless tard. It should have been done over a decade ago.
Everyone is staring at the 32 acres put into the design, all the historical buildings lost and thinking wtf were they thinking?
Don't tell me it "ain't that easy." 150% accident rate compared to all other MO Highways and this shit has been allowed to stay in place for decades? We've had idiots running this city for decades - idiots.
missingkc wrote:Depressing that Willard can envision those northside parking lots being left empty until almost 2031.
now you see the problem with these big ideas that require large swaths of land? same thing happened with south loop. the 40-year promise of a makeover prevented anything incremental.
I agree Dave. Take this land NOW and start planning and marketing.
Urban Target. Mixed use residential and storefront. Some office and a contemporary hotel on the streetcar line.
A block or blocks of townhouses would be a homerun.
Give Fang an afternoon and you will have a hundred credible options....
missingkc wrote:Depressing that Willard can envision those northside parking lots being left empty until almost 2031.
now you see the problem with these big ideas that require large swaths of land? same thing happened with south loop. the 40-year promise of a makeover prevented anything incremental.
I agree Dave. Take this land NOW and start planning and marketing.
Urban Target. Mixed use residential and storefront. Some office and a contemporary hotel on the streetcar line.
A block or blocks of townhouses would be a homerun.
Give Fang an afternoon and you will have a hundred credible options....
How are you going to take this land? That isn't yours to take in the first place. There's nothing to buy. And if memory is correct a local government cannot use eminent domain to take property from a state nor the federal government.
How are you going to market it? No developer is going to tie up funds on a project that may never happen. And if it did happen who knows when it would happen.
