Turn the North Loop into a bigger living/working district?

[TheUrbanRoo]

The part I had to double back a read twice: this north loop project would only cost $65-150 mil? That’s less than the South Loop Cap.

[dukuboy1]

They must just be looking at costs for taking out current North Loop highway and developing the trench. Most likely zero dollars allocated to redo the entire East Loop and improve traffic over there, as you would eliminate a major Interstate access with removal of the North Loop. That traffic has to go somewhere and there are major bottlenecks now with the East Loop that would be pure suicide without doing something to improve traffic there.

The traffic removed from the North Loop does not disappear it's still there and over time will increase as the city's population grows, especially the growth of the Northland. So Any plan that does not provide solutions for the East Loop IMO is DOA.

[Belvidere]

Theo would part I had to double back a read twice: this north loop project would only cost $65-150 mil? That’s less than the South Loop Cap.

The North Loop transformation benefits people and residents, over corporations, and could generate all kinds of revenue. But we prioritize Power and Light and entities like Lowe's hotel. The cap will be a private and programmed space, not public, which brings up surveillance and security. The North Loop could provide real public space.and housing. I can't see much taxpayer value in improving it improving or bringing it up to date. That highway seems like a waste of money.

If we zoom out, the main investments I see in eastern downtown are related to services. This is just my personal take, but I think it's deliberate. They want to protect the corporate interests and tourists. They have no vision like we had with the Paseo Gateway project to turn the place around. I had high hopes for the sustainable bus corridor from Independence to KCK, but I think that's probably going to die in the Trump administration. I watched a man yesterday walk through the neighborhood and he had to stop and rest at every block. I'm not even sure our neighborhood will end up with a bus stop along the sustainable corridor. They could bypass us and go to the transit center.

The Kansas City, Missouri, budget is not doing well and I pity the next Council because they're not going to have much to work with. It's times like this that I very much miss Sly James as mayor.

The East Loop is a dangerous mess. I have seen proposals to deal with that, but I would have to go find them again.

I guess if I'm tired of being the sacrifice area, for traffic or consolidated services, we're just going to have to move out.

[TheBigChuckbowski]

They must just be looking at costs for taking out current North Loop highway and developing the trench. Most likely zero dollars allocated to redo the entire East Loop and improve traffic over there, as you would eliminate a major Interstate access with removal of the North Loop. That traffic has to go somewhere and there are major bottlenecks now with the East Loop that would be pure suicide without doing something to improve traffic there.

The traffic removed from the North Loop does not disappear it's still there and over time will increase as the city's population grows, especially the growth of the Northland. So Any plan that does not provide solutions for the East Loop IMO is DOA.

I agree that the East Loop is something that would need to be tackled before or during the decommission of North Loop. But, the bottlenecks are not caused by too much traffic and I doubt removing North Loop would add all that much traffic to East Loop, it may even take some away. East Loop's problems are purely due to a poor design. Three lanes of northbound traffic get reduced to one at the same point that 22nd street traffic is merging onto the highway, westbound traffic has to get left, eastbound traffic has to get right and 11th street traffic has to exit. The sign that says "NORTH 29 35 71 70 24 40" is comical and all you need to know. Three interstates and three other highways get one lane though a major city. It's designed to be a clusterfuck. There is plenty of space to have two lanes there if the bridge over 12th is rebuilt and all of the northbound bottlenecks disappear overnight. The southbound bottlenecks are caused by I-70 Eastbound traffic having to change one or two lanes in under half of a mile just to stay on I-70 and slowing down southbound traffic (that is eliminated with North Loop removal).

[Highlander]

I'm wondering what's the plan for the Lewis and Clark viaduct without the North Loop? Does that highway remain where it is and exit onto the Buck O'Neil Bridge (N) and I-35 along the bluffs (S) and just end eastward at that point? Or does it just go away completely? The latter leaves KCK without a major highway in close proximity to its downtown and cuts off a potentially vital road that takes people into the Fairfax industrial area which is a major employment area for the metro. I realize this is all hypothetical. Just wondering how all the pieces would fit together.

[KCPowercat]

It already has an exit to the west side of the loop and can get to buck bridge via Broadway exit. Doesn't seem like much of a downgrade for kck

[TheLastGentleman]

I say decommission i70 through KCK and downgrade one half of the Lewis and clark to a two-way trafficway, and convert the other half to transit/pedestrian/whatever. Kansas city design center proposed something similar. Student work, but they had the backing of the UG

[KCPowercat]

Could definitely be downgraded and that thing is expensive to maintain.

[dukuboy1]

They must just be looking at costs for taking out current North Loop highway and developing the trench. Most likely zero dollars allocated to redo the entire East Loop and improve traffic over there, as you would eliminate a major Interstate access with removal of the North Loop. That traffic has to go somewhere and there are major bottlenecks now with the East Loop that would be pure suicide without doing something to improve traffic there.

The traffic removed from the North Loop does not disappear it's still there and over time will increase as the city's population grows, especially the growth of the Northland. So Any plan that does not provide solutions for the East Loop IMO is DOA.

I agree that the East Loop is something that would need to be tackled before or during the decommission of North Loop. But, the bottlenecks are not caused by too much traffic and I doubt removing North Loop would add all that much traffic to East Loop, it may even take some away. East Loop's problems are purely due to a poor design. Three lanes of northbound traffic get reduced to one at the same point that 22nd street traffic is merging onto the highway, westbound traffic has to get left, eastbound traffic has to get right and 11th street traffic has to exit. The sign that says "NORTH 29 35 71 70 24 40" is comical and all you need to know. Three interstates and three other highways get one lane though a major city. It's designed to be a clusterfuck. There is plenty of space to have two lanes there if the bridge over 12th is rebuilt and all of the northbound bottlenecks disappear overnight. The southbound bottlenecks are caused by I-70 Eastbound traffic having to change one or two lanes in under half of a mile just to stay on I-70 and slowing down southbound traffic (that is eliminated with North Loop removal).

Well there will be traffic added to the East loop for sure. Even if you had say 1000 extra cars going that way in a day it’s still a NET add. But I do agree with you the design is terrible and must be fixed. Luckily there is plenty of room over there to do so. Just removing some of the jenky on ramps & exits and having an actual design that limits things would be great. But as it stands I feel you can’t do the North Loop without solving the East Loop in tandem

[GRID]

Removing the north loop would actually allow the east loop to be cleaned up by removing movements to and from the north loop. Also need to remove all the exits on the east loop and funnel downtown traffic from the interstates onto Paseo, Truman etc. Could possibly keep some access to Admiral or Independence Ave.

The North Loop is not needed. However, what in the world would replace it? It would cost so much to turn it into a park and level out all the roads around it. Seems like a project way too big to be done right. And it would takes 100 years for KC to develop all that land. Lots of room for a MLB stadium though.

[langosta]

Removing the north loop would actually allow the east loop to be cleaned up by removing movements to and from the north loop. Also need to remove all the exits on the east loop and funnel downtown traffic from the interstates onto Paseo, Truman etc. Could possibly keep some access to Admiral or Independence Ave.

The North Loop is not needed. However, what in the world would replace it? It would cost so much to turn it into a park and level out all the roads around it. Seems like a project way too big to be done right. And it would takes 100 years for KC to develop all that land. Lots of room for a MLB stadium though.

Fill in with below grade parking and transit

[beautyfromashes]

Fill in with below grade parking and transit

Damn it! Beat me to it.

[KCPowercat]

Removing the north loop would actually allow the east loop to be cleaned up by removing movements to and from the north loop. Also need to remove all the exits on the east loop and funnel downtown traffic from the interstates onto Paseo, Truman etc. Could possibly keep some access to Admiral or Independence Ave.

The North Loop is not needed. However, what in the world would replace it? It would cost so much to turn it into a park and level out all the roads around it. Seems like a project way too big to be done right. And it would takes 100 years for KC to develop all that land. Lots of room for a MLB stadium though.

Yeah there is no "leveling out" to this plan. Let buildings rise up around a parkway. yes also make space for a north loop ballpark but unfortunately I don't think the timelines meet up. IMO it's the perfect spot for Kauffman 2.0.

[FangKC]

Would this below-grade parkway be a pass-through for traffic from I-29 to connect to the Inter-City Trafficway across the West Bottoms? Would the only exits for downtown be on the east end and there would be no other ramps between say Charlotte (to 6th St. and Independence Avenue) and at Broadway?