Capping the Loop

[shinatoo]

Well said hyperbole911.

[Worn Copy]

Other cities have trenches downtown. Vine Street Expressway and a section of I-95 in Phily. Sections of the Eisenhower and Stevenson in Chicago. Etc.

When I say trench I'm referring to the large swath of land (2-3 blocks wide) that destroy the streetgrid and many, many blocks of buildings. That's why I differentiated between the wide dug-out trenches on the noth, east and west sides of downtown and the south loop tunnel in my post.

Stephenson for example, is only on the ground for a few blocks (2?) and doesn't take up much more then the highway lanes needed.

Vine St Expwy in Center City is in a tunnel (like our south loop) and has NO effect on the street grid. I-95 is 100% elevated through Center City and maybe has 1 or 2 blocks where an exit (only) is on the ground.

I lived in Philadelphia for many years...I-95 is not 100% elevated, and Vine does impact the continuity of the street grid. But this is the stupidest fucking argument I've ever gotten into, so I encourage you to think whatever you want and let's leave it at that.

[pash]

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[loftguy]

Yes, harbinger911 is right.

The north loop was an Urban Renewal maneuver that removed the gritty, antique, old-school, mom and pop businesses that represented 'what was wrong with Kansas City' to the business elite. They wanted to create a trench, a moat, a divide, that separated their bright and shiny future from the past, the cow town, the river.

The same thinking is still tearing buildings down today.

[flyingember]

Look at this worthless design - red is land used by the highways that cannot be developed as is.
The only side of downtown that is connected to a neighborhood is the south loop.

Wyandotte is where you could say this if anything is on the north loop. Short bridge, lots right up to 6th St, good pedestrian access. Too bad Wyandotte south of I-70 is a sea of parking lots.

[moderne]

So happy is Dallas with putting a park over a freeway they may tear down a freeway: http://www.metropolismag.com/Mission-Impossible/

[flyingember]

if you ever wanted to see how one caps a freeway the St. Louis arch project is currently at the steel structure phase. it was installed July 12

http://oxblue.com/open/modot/cams

[LCDSI]

check out some of these urban parks. it would be great if we could cap the loop and have a park like one of the ones here.

http://gizmodo.com/the-5-coolest-new-pa ... socialflow

[shinatoo]

Seeing what they are trying to get done in Denver makes me grateful, at least, that we have a trench instead of a elevated highway through downtown.

[pash]

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[pash]

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[FangKC]

Another idea for capping the loop.

http://www.archdaily.com/598933/plannin ... -of-paris/

[DaveKCMO]

i'm getting a vibe that the city will propose something to be included in their upcoming GO bond package. nothing to back that up.

[pash]

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[DaveKCMO]

I encourage anybody who hasn't seen it to flip through the report the city commissioned in 2009, linked a couple of posts up. It seems surprisingly realistic to think this could be done.

keep in mind the GO bond package in total might just be in the $250M range, so i would expect another nibble at the cap and not the whole enchilada.

[JBmidtown]

A nibble would do more to restore the grid than nothing. Unless by nibble you mean they just replace bridges...that would be ridiculous

[mgh7676]

I wonder if the Cordish Towers along Truman are the driving force behind this possibility. If so, I hope that means Cordish designs the Two & Three Light to utilize the newly capped loop.

[flyingember]

there's lots to do. and replacing bridges is likely a key step for a cap. Main St was raised up when it was rebuilt. the utility bridge was not. So there's one.

There's thorough engineering to do just to figure out the maximum weight possible based on the underground environment. can't draw concept plans without knowing the fundamentals.

[DaveKCMO]

A nibble would do more to restore the grid than nothing. Unless by nibble you mean they just replace bridges...that would be ridiculous

the last nibble was extending the width of the main street bridge to include 8' and 18' sidewalks (up from 5' on both sides, i think), sound abatement, and a new pedestrian area on the south edge of the trench.

that low-cost ($3M) intervention dramatically improved the crossing experience.

i would expect something similar, perhaps on several crossings. most were last renovated in 2007, but that fix was only supposed to last 10 years. main and broadway have already been reconstructed.

a mcgee crossing should be restored, perhaps bike and ped only?

[JBmidtown]

Is decking/capping across the whole south loop out of the question? The report from 2009 says the whole project wwould cost $145+ million. What other improvements does the bond package go towards?