13
votes
Kansas City receives $15 billion in federal funding for mobility and infrastructure projects
Link information
This data is scraped automatically and may be incorrect.
- Title
- U.S. Department of Transportation Establishes Partnership with Kansas City to Finance Mobility and Infrastructure Projects
- Word count
- 746 words
It looks like Kansas City is getting funding for several interesting rail and safety projects. The most important item here is probably the airport connection, a $10.5 billion project bringing air travelers directly into the downtown instead of driving or taking a taxi. Airport connections to the downtown are an extremely important part of a city's transportation network; their absence from many American cities contributes to slower travel times, more traffic, and more automobile usage than is necessary. Federal funding like this goes a long way in allowing local municipalities (which usually don't have $10 billion lying around) to make important upgrades to their systems to improve quality of life for residents and visitors alike.
I'm also interested in the streetcar expansion project, which will help a lot of people get to work without a car, and the urban park over I-670. For some reason the press release doesn't refer to this as a highway cap, which is what it is—this is not a park near a highway (those are generally not super pleasant), but an effective removal of the highway as far as pedestrians are concerned. It's called the "South Loop Project" for those curious. It's similar to other highway capping initiatives, like the Park at Penn's Landing currently under construction in Philadelphia.
Some amount of this funding is coming from Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loans and Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF). The press release doesn't explicitly specify, but some amount of those programs' funding was extended under Biden's 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Wouldn't be happening without Joe. :/
$1.5 billion each on two studies seems high to me, but if it's going to result in more highway caps or something, then let's hear it. It's also nice to see $75 million put toward Vision Zero initiatives. Hopefully that means, among other things, more protected bike lanes.
I think the airport connection would be a good one. And then somehow tie that into that proposal/idea for the Streetcar to connect across the river to North Kansas City.
It'll be interested to see how this turns out. Does 71 go away? Get turned into a regular street? Will the at-grade intersections like at Gregory Blvd finally go away?! Probably not. I know there's some weird court decision that prevents that, at least not without neighborhood input. My thought is to turn 71, from Downtown to at least the Blue River, into a normal street, then run a public transit rail along it. The median and side of the current highway could be used for additional development. Locally-owned businesses, housing, etc. Don't gentrify is, just develop and renew the area, kinda like what's being done along Troost in some sections.
I've never thought about this being an issue before. Probably because it's more of an urban environment that's built up, compared to 71, which is more urban residential neighborhoods. Something to think about, for sure.