"Truman Blvd"??

[kcdcchef]

i kind of noticed that the whole stretch of freeway, as it gets more and more decked over, is a nice big city touch. the only sections of freeway that truly go through boston, and dc, take you pretty much under it. which is WAY cool. i think that with the bartle expansion, the new work they are doing on exsisting bridges, i think this is pretty cool. i would love to see something nice come out of truman as a result of all this, i mean, truman was it before I-70, and a lot of subarbanites still use it to get home, a real nice facelift for it where it meets downtown would be nice.

[LenexatoKCMO]

  It really isn't that far from one side of the freeway to the other. 

It is amazing just how narrow 670 looks when viewed from the top.  When you drive through below it seems like you are in this giant canyon but it really isn't that wide, especially to the east towards the arena and P&L.  They are covering the widest part down towards Bartle.  I think that once that is done, and there is development on both sides, 670 will start to seem like a pretty insignificant division.  The north side of the loop is a far more intimidating beast. 

[voltopt]

tell me about it... i walk across the main street bridge every morning from my bus stop at 9th and main, and from 7th street all the way to fifth is a terrible, terrible experience.  any love for kansas city i gain by watching people on the bus or the city through the windows is quickly lost as i trudge along a two block long bridge with a chain link fence to my left.

ugly.

[Deleted User]

.

[voltopt]

exactly.  the double crosswalk at 7th and main is strange and annoying, and as i cross the front of that off ramp i imagine all the drivers just waiting to gun it, like a race. 

i know the bridge was designed to go over 6th street as well as the highway because of the grades, but its a terrible design and doesn't do anything for that space.
the separation caused by the highway expands like a circle right there at 6th and main(which isn't even a true intersection...)

i wish they would remove a few of their on ramps and provide the easements at wyandotte and walnut to provide for more dense construction in the green field on both sides of the highway.  it has to be at least 50 feet from public street to highway shoulder, if not more, and if things started to get dense around there, they could build into the green space with parking underground (the ground is already soft, and in section would be aboveground by the highway) essentially treating the parking  as the freeway edge wall, similar in nature to I-670.  anyway.... MODOT would never cede any land to anyone... they protect their land for possilbe "expansion".  its too bad the city gave over so much land to MODOT back then , because it will take an act of Missouri Congress to give it back (i'm not sure if it literally will.. that's more of a joke than anything)

[GRID]

If you guys knew what MoDot plans on doing with the northloop, you would all collectively puke.

[Highlander]

If you guys knew what MoDot plans on doing with the northloop, you would all collectively puke.

So, care to fill us in? or is it confidential info?

[GRID]

Well, I don't know if it's public or not and it's only in the MIS stage, but they are definitely heading in the opposite direction of what most of us would like to see.  Imagine a whole lot more lanes, more weaving, and more CD ramps and lanes.  Not sure why since the west side of the loop can't handle hardly any traffic, but anyway.  They "should" take I-70 off the Lewis and Clark and off the north loop and put it on 670 and create a parkway with the north loop.  Take a lane of the Lewis and Clark viaduct and make it a bike/ped facility to connect KC and KCK.

[JDluu]

Another exciting part of this overall connectivity strategy includes the concept of connecting the downtown loop with the Crossroads District by constructing development pad sites over I-670 at Truman Boulevard. The City of Kansas City was successful in getting a federal earmark for this project. Over the next six to eight months, the City will conduct an extensive study of how to bring this cutting-edge concept into reality.

http://www.kcmo.org/mayor.nsf/web/connectivity
Mayor Kay Barnes
State of the City Address
Thursday, May 18, 2006

I ran across this when I was just aimlessly browsing. Has this been talked about on this thread or somewhere else and I just missed it?

I know its not saying that they have an actionable plan, but it is more than I thought was going on with this. I thought it was still at pie-in-the-sky phase with pretty artist renderings. Does anyone know what happened with this "extensive study"?

[Tosspot]

Pad sites? Does that mean what I think it means?

Sure, I suppose it's better than an undecked highway slicing through downtown...but still. I hope my conception of this is erred.

[ShowMeKC]

You don't want the highway capped over? That's how I understood it.

[Tosspot]

You don't want the highway capped over? That's how I understood it.

Yes, I would love to see the highway capped over. It's the "pad site" thing that caught my attention. I would be curious about the details of that.

[GRID]

pad site could be for a burger king or a 50 story hotel.

I doubt they will be building a burger king over 670, rural oklahoma maybe, but not downtown kcmo.

The North loop is far worse than 670.  With all of its ramps, and massive right of ways, that thing is a scar in downtown.  You can barely find 670 unless you are right on top of it.

670 has never bothered me much anyway.  It's a narrow canyon.  I don't think it has that much effect on the connection between the CBD and crossroads.  Go ahead and cap it sure, but if we spent that 500 million doing something else like building a light rail line, I would be fine with that.

[kard]

...Go ahead and cap it sure, but if we spent that 500 million doing something else like building a light rail line, I would be fine with that.

Seconded!

[AndrewN]

Columbus has a capped freeway with pad sites in the Short North area of the city.  It is really cool.  You have no idea a freeway runs below. 

[KC0KEK]

Columbus has a capped freeway with pad sites in the Short North area of the city.  It is really cool.  You have no idea a freeway runs below. 

Got any photos?

[AndrewN]

No photos.  Maybe if i get up to columbus next week I can shoot a few pictures of it.

[DaveKCMO]

No photos.  Maybe if i get up to columbus next week I can shoot a few pictures of it.

you can see it on google earth. looks like it's simply been removed from the surface. coincidentally, it is also called I-670.

i did find this blog entry, which links to several other sites with pix: http://citycomfortsblog.typepad.com/cit ... 0_cap.html

[KCMax]

Columbus has a capped freeway with pad sites in the Short North area of the city.  It is really cool.  You have no idea a freeway runs below. 

I went to school in Columbus and you have no idea how much I kick myself now for not exploring the city better. It really is a city on the up and up with some really cool and upcoming neighborhoods and a great variety of microbrews. But at the time I was just a stupid little college kid from the burbs scared to ever leave campus. My loss.

[BVC]

Atlanta has a 15 story-ish building built over Georgia 400 in Buckhead which is wider than 670 and a MARTA terminal over the downtown connector which is MUCH wider than 670.  The total area capped in Buckhead is roughly 1/2 - 3/4 the size as DTKCMO's I-670 albeit GA-400 is not a canyon.  I'll try to snap a pic this weekend for viewing pleasure...