OFFICIAL - Buck O'Neil Bridge

[Highlander]

Probably the wrong spot for this but didn't they recently open the southbound I-35 entrance off the north loop at the south end of the Buck O'Neil Bridge? I swore I drove this just a few weeks ago. I was coming back from the northland yesterday and decided to go this direction because it's generally faster than going through downtown after coming across the HOA bridge. Closed again. Ended up in KCK yet again and had to backtrack to Broadway. Just close down the North Loop already. Every highway in DT KC was pretty busy at the time but practically nobody on the north loop. Not even sure why I-70 is routed this direction. Why not route I-70 over what is now 670 and save the 670 moniker for the North Loop and Intercity Viaduct.

Sorry for the rant but while I'm here, are there any plans to reopen the Kansas Avenue and Central Bridges over the Kansas River? Need to get our collective acts together in terms of infrastructure.

Regarding North Loop, I was told by an individual with power here that the goal is to make driving on the North Loop harder throughout this construction phase, and even after construction ends, in order to get support up for removing it.

So does the north loop removal concept include a removal of the Lewis and Clark viaduct (Intercity Viaduct)? Or would the spur from I-35 to Buck O'Neil still have the option of using the LCV? That is an artery to the Fairfax employment center (General Motors, Owings Corning and many more companies reside there).

[langosta]

I don’t think you could close it after they just spent too much rebuilding the thing.

[KCPowercat]

Probably the wrong spot for this but didn't they recently open the southbound I-35 entrance off the north loop at the south end of the Buck O'Neil Bridge? I swore I drove this just a few weeks ago. I was coming back from the northland yesterday and decided to go this direction because it's generally faster than going through downtown after coming across the HOA bridge. Closed again. Ended up in KCK yet again and had to backtrack to Broadway. Just close down the North Loop already. Every highway in DT KC was pretty busy at the time but practically nobody on the north loop. Not even sure why I-70 is routed this direction. Why not route I-70 over what is now 670 and save the 670 moniker for the North Loop and Intercity Viaduct.

Sorry for the rant but while I'm here, are there any plans to reopen the Kansas Avenue and Central Bridges over the Kansas River? Need to get our collective acts together in terms of infrastructure.

Regarding North Loop, I was told by an individual with power here that the goal is to make driving on the North Loop harder throughout this construction phase, and even after construction ends, in order to get support up for removing it.

So does the north loop removal concept include a removal of the Lewis and Clark viaduct (Intercity Viaduct)? Or would the spur from I-35 to Buck O'Neil still have the option of using the LCV? That is an artery to the Fairfax employment center (General Motors, Owings Corning and many more companies reside there).

No it would stay but not sure it's been detailed how it would connect, would depend on full removal of North Loop (less likely) or a reduction in size (more likely) - just my opinion on likeliness. A downtown ballpark may also scare the city off from total north loop closure or even more scary not bringing highway 9 down to streetlevel.

[KCPowercat]

Hoping this group can breath some new life into the north loop discussion. Shows the benefits of a new buck bridge to make the north loop removal possible

https://www.northloopneighbors.com/

[beautyfromashes]

Hoping this group can breath some new life into the north loop discussion. Shows the benefits of a new buck bridge to make the north loop removal possible

https://www.northloopneighbors.com/

Wow, I liked that plan so much I was looking for a place on the website to donate. Best of luck to them.

[Cratedigger]

Incredible work being done.

Wish them the best of luck

[dukuboy1]

Love the idea. Especially removing the dangerous on & off ramps in the North Loop. If they did that at min it would be better. However for this to really work an entire revamp of the east Loop would be necessary. Lucky there is room to do it the way it sets up now but that needs to be solved to make it work

[KCPowercat]

The ramps have been one of the drivers of this all the way back to beyond the loop study.

[Highlander]

Article about the issues with I-670. Although I rarely drive this section, it's hard not to notice the traffic bottleneck here when downtown. There are not many ways to fix this issue as the interstate is entrenched and cannot be widened without prohibitive cost. I've wondered how the high traffic volume on I-670 and the bottleneck at where I-35 turns east onto this stretch could impact removing the north loop? I-70 is presently routed through the north loop (despite being a lengthy detour for most people traversing the city on I-70) which probably serves to limit some traffic on I-670 although I suspect most GPS systems route drivers traversing the city across I-670. Could this traffic issue hold up an eventual north loop removal?


https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/yo ... t-highways?


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[herrfrank]

The Kansas DOT and MODOT should restrict through traffic to the ring highways (MO 152 and I-435 west ring for I-35 traffic and I-470 to I-435 south ring for I-70 traffic) -- this can be mandatory for 3+axle vehicles and "encouraged" for all through traffic. Columbus OH has signs encouraging this IIRC. I-29 through traffic (to I-49) could be encouraged to take the I-435 west ring also, but I think there is pretty minimal through traffic now because of the signals on 71/ Bruce Watkins.

It would increase traffic on I-435, especially in southern KC and Overland Park, but those roads are much better designed to handle significant traffic. This change could also be effected by re-numbering the highways, so that the downtown routes are "spurs" rather than actual primary interstates. I-670 already has that. Could be done with I-35 (call it I-535 or something) and I-70 also.

Downtown KC's interstates should be handling local traffic only. It will take some time to get there, but once that happens, the north loop removal will seem more obvious to everyone.

[TheBigChuckbowski]

The problem is not traffic volume, the problem is design. Honestly, putting in more lanes would make things worse because people would have to change more lanes to get where they need to go.

The extra lane they added heading east entering the loop has been horrendous, it pushes the merging to happen later in the trench, instead of through the West Bottoms where there's 1+ mile with great visibility to make that merge easy. Now, it's merging 5 lanes to 3 with traffic coming from 3 different directions and pretty much everyone has to change at least one lane to get to where they need to in under a mile.

We don't even go through here anymore, after they changed the design, even though it's the fastest route from my parents' house to ours, it's too dangerous. Even when traffic volumes are super low, it's sketchy as hell.