Capping the Loop

[Highlander]

On the other hand I'm not at all opposed to capping the south loop and would suspect that the will to do this may grow over the next few years as the arena/p&l district push property values in this area ever higher.  Though I would imagine building any substantial structures over the highway would require some extreme engineering and expense, it seems like a park would be fairly easy/affordable to put on an eventual cap.

Somewhere on this board, there was an explanation as to why it would be very difficult to build structures atop a capped loop.  I believe it was posted by Grid and it had to due with the more severe limitations put on a structure that effectively becomes a tunnel and not just an overpass.  Having said that, I think capping the loop and replacing it by a boulevard as illustrated in other threads and endorsed by the city would be a very good thing.  First of all, we will never see Phase II of the P&L District if something like this does not happen.  Would anybody really be interested in a high-dollar condo on 14th street immediately south of the district that looked directly down on an interstate.....the noise would be enough to dissuade most buyers.  Given the difficulty of putting structures on a capped loop, an E-W running boulevard would be favorable but a park would be fine too. 

[DaveKCMO]

Restored to what?

restore the prominence of the river (i.e. riverfront), not the river itself. bad sentence.

[shinatoo]

I wouldn't mind moving the north loop to the other side of the river, making it wide, and making that the main through highway for downtown. The river already divides the city. Why not use something like that?

Expressway access does not make a downtown.

Agree. take 35 from state line up the west bottoms and over the river just south of the Airport. Get rid of the norht loop and put 670 under ground. That would reconnect Penn valley park the west side and riverfront.

[ShowMeKC]

Wouldn't that require the demolition of many buildings in the West Bottoms?

[shinatoo]

No.

[ShowMeKC]

You'd have to do some serious reconstruction of the bridges (going through the W Bottoms) and it would require the demolition of West bottoms buildings if built W of the rail tracks... We can't build on the bluffs, we should keep the bluffs as they are

[kcmetro]

We can't build on the bluffs, we should keep the bluffs as they are

Or build on the side of the bluffs......

"You should never build on top of anything… If you should built on top of the hill, you’ll lose the hill. If you build on the side, you have the hill, and the eminence you’ve desired."
-Frank Lloyd Wright

[ShowMeKC]

that is what I mean, we cannot build on the side of the bluffs, that kills the purpose of bluffs, either build on top of them, or below them. Building on the side eliminates the bluffs. (and bluffs aren't hills )

[bbqboy]

[Gretz]

If money were no object I'd be all for something like this.  However, I'd rather live with what we have and see the several hundred million that this would cost be devoted to mass-transit infrastructure rather than new highway construction (or sewers or an acquarium or bus service or free clinics or anything else really).

[ShowMeKC]

bbq, that isn't building on the side of the bluff. What we have now with the highway is built on the side of the bluff (partially), and it scars the bluff and doesn't look as natural.

[GRID]

shinatoo, that road, (or bridge) you have in red would cost several billion dollars.

The loop is going nowhere.

Cap 670, but even that shouldn't be a priority right now.  Hate to say it, but right now, we need to "upgrade" part of the downtown loop more than anything, such as getting a modern Paseo Bridge up and replacing bridges like Broadway over 670 which is simply ridiculous.

It would take billions to build any sort of new alignment through downtown, many many billions and many more to tear out what there now and prep those areas for redevelopment.

But wait, we still have tons and tons of vacant, low density and underutilized land downtown, including nearly half the land inside the loop, so where are all of these developments that will take the place of the loop going to come from?  This isn't Boston. If we tore out the loop today, it would be nothing but a scar around downtown.  Personally, I'll take the freeways over vacant land ringing the downtown area and take that money to continue to fix our infrastructure which is still one of the worst in the nation or help build projects like East Village or light rail.

[ShowMeKC]

I personally wouldn't want it to happen now, we should wait till more of the vacant lots are filled in. Maybe by 2020 or shortly thereafter.

[shinatoo]

shinatoo, that road, (or bridge) you have in red would cost several billion dollars.

The loop is going nowhere.

Cap 670, but even that shouldn't be a priority right now.  Hate to say it, but right now, we need to "upgrade" part of the downtown loop more than anything, such as getting a modern Paseo Bridge up and replacing bridges like Broadway over 670 which is simply ridiculous.

It would take billions to build any sort of new alignment through downtown, many many billions and many more to tear out what there now and prep those areas for redevelopment.

But wait, we still have tons and tons of vacant, low density and underutilized land downtown, including nearly half the land inside the loop, so where are all of these developments that will take the place of the loop going to come from?  This isn't Boston. If we tore out the loop today, it would be nothing but a scar around downtown.  Personally, I'll take the freeways over vacant land ringing the downtown area and take that money to continue to fix our infrastructure which is still one of the worst in the nation or help build projects like East Village or light rail.

Just dreaming bro.

[KCDowntown]

The city has an RFQ for consultant firms looking to do a feasibility study for capping I-670.  The RFQ is online at the City Government's Planning & Development site

KCDowntown

[dangerboy]

Cool find.  Good to see the city is finally moving beyond just talking about to actually studying.  We're only about 10 years behind St. Louis in efforts cap a downtown highway.

[KCtoBrooklyn]

Plus, I don't know of any interstate that is actually a boulevard. I can't imagine the feds converting I-70 into a boulevard.

I know this is a significantly different situation, but here is an example of an expressway turning into a boulevard (parkway) in Brooklyn.
I live on this parkway about half a mile down from the switchover spot.

The parkway still has six lanes of traffic and handles a high volume quite well.
From the closeup below, you can see a small strip of trees on either side of the pkwy.  These strips have bike and footpaths, as well as benches.  (I don't understand why you would want to sit and stare at traffic, but people do it.)
Outside of these strips are the service roads for the parkway for access to the buildings and on street parking.


Although this works well in this instance, I don't think it would go that smoothly in the loop.
At this time, the money would be better spent elsewhere.

[voltopt]

they could fit all of this, the 3-4 lanes each way of thru - parkway, the strip of trees and benches, the local access roads on each side, and some apartment buildings, in the space between 6th and Independence Avenue in the North Loop. 

it would be sweet.

[advocrat]

The city has an RFQ for consultant firms looking to do a feasibility study for capping I-670.  The RFQ is online at the City Government's Planning & Development site

KCDowntown

This is pretty exciting, if only because we'll know in about 2 weeks whether anybody has snapped at the bait dangling from the Planning and Development hook.

[im2kull]

yeah..comparing our highway system to stl's just pisses me off...then I realize we have 5 times the land area as stl..and I explode...I hate...hate...MODOT...there's absolutely no reason we couldn't cap ALL of the DT freeways in the next 15-20 years...and thats a generous timeline...look what boston has done..in the amount of time they've had..and now look at the grandview triangle 30 years ago..and look at it today..and look at how much has been wasted there, and how much progress has actually been done... - that..is why missouri has the 50th worst roads of any state...thank you MODOT