The Line Creek Loudmouth

Purpose of this blog

The mission of this blog is to inform the residents of the Line Creek Valley and surrounding areas of the intricacies of what's going on at the neighborhood level that impacts their lives.

If you would like the Loudmouth to find an answer to a question about the Line Creek valley, please ask.  Follow me on Twitter @LCLoudmouth or like the Line Creek Loudmouth on Facebook.  As the unofficial Platte County satirist, I am an equal opportunity jester.  If you can't laugh at yourself, you will live a miserable life.  Life's too short to run around offended.

I hope that someday, the Line Creek Loudmouth will become the epicenter of Platte County haughtiness. 

Thank you for reading!

The 8th Street Tunnel

I've been wanting to do a post forever on the 8th Street Tunnel in Kansas City but just haven't gotten around to it.  The problem with trying to juggle seven kids with a job with a half billion dollar budget and over 750 employees is that it takes away time to keep this website up.  The reason why I haven't trashed it is because I love documenting Kansas City history and making it so others who have the nerdiness of myself can waste time gathering useless information.  I am hopelessly optimistic that some of the Tik-Tok generation might stop watching incredibly stupid videos to learn something.....

Did you know there was a tunnel from the West Bottoms to downtown Kansas City which until the automobile was the main way for people to get from our founding agriculture history to our banking and housing centers downtown?  If you go back and look at old posts about "Kansas City Before Freeways" and "1947 Riverfront Master Plan Wanted Another Freeway" you can see pictures with the tunnel in the posts.  I went ahead and pulled them out of the post and posted them below. I will note that I have started adding a watermark or identifier in the pictures because some buttheads take the material and post it without crediting the source.  I don't mind sharing this material but if I take the time to create content please have the decency to post the source.  Behind every blogger there is someone who's giving up time watching "The X-Files" or Charles Bronson butt-kicking movies to create material.  If you would like to see more, I encourage you to share the page and posts.  It's not for my ego but I might be more inclined to contribute content if people like what I am posting.  I understand now why bloggers fade away because the motivation fades unless people like what is posted.  Anyways I will digress from blogger self-pity to talk about a rather awesome part of history that I have seen. 

I've previously posted pictures which showed the 8th Street Tunnel. In the first picture, one would be over the Missouri River looking southwest towards the West Bottoms.  The tunnel is within the red circle.  This was taken before the Buck O'Neil (Broadway) Bridge was built and people still used the old Hannibal Bridge.

In the picture below, it's really easy to see the trestle leading into the tunnel.  This is looking southeast towards downtown if one was hovering over the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers. This was taken before any freeways or I-35 were built. 

I was fortunate to be able to get into the tunnel as part of the new Buck O'Neil Bridge project because when I-35 was built through the bluff on the west side of downtown, the tunnel was severed and closed.  The team working on the environmental study needed to figure out if the tunnel cap was in the right place or if the proposed new direct connection from I-35 to go north would cut into the tunnel.  I, of course, jumped at the opportunity to get into the tunnel and explore it because I'm a different level of geek....

Maybe someday I will have a follow up posts with some material I have from other sources about the tunnel but essentially there are two tunnels.  The first tunnel was a brick lined tunnel with a steep grade which was built in the 1800's.  At some point, the tunnel was deemed too steep and a second tunnel was excavated and built within the original tunnel in the 1900's. 

If you are downtown and have ever wondered why we have a weird park/pedestrian plaza on 8th Street west of Broadway and a fountain there, it was because that was where the tunnel opened.  This area was repurposed as a non-car plaza thing when the streetcar was removed.  I never understood why that part of downtown was the way it was until I pulled up the 1925 Tuttle Ayers atlas and saw where it came out.  I would show more on that but I can't find the tile of that area online easily from that atlas.  I may have to go visit my friends at McClure Engineering Company who have a couple of original  copies and take a picture from their original atlases if I ever get around to a follow up post.

The picture below if from what I am guessing is a 1944ish aerial picture I found laying around in a file drawer at City Hall.  The trestle to the tunnel is within the red circle. 

I went ahead and zoomed in on the picture above.  The inter-city viaduct (which became I-70) is in purple and Broadway would be where the orange line is.

The tunnel entrance is in a parking garage.  I don't feel bad sharing it because the parking garage was probably built with TIF and us taxpayers subsidized it so we have a moral claim that it's a public asset so I don't have any qualms about posting it.  You can see the brick tunnel lining in amongst the parking garage HVAC.

Entering the tunnel, one can see the top of the original, steeper tunnel.  This is about 200 feet after the entrance.  The floor of this tunnel in the picture is the top of the newer, less steep tunnel.

The brick tunnel liner for the original tunnel is steeper than the top of the new tunnel so vertical clearance gets shorter the further one goes into the tunnel.  It's probably 10 feet at the entrance and then goes to about 5 feet before the new tunnel top ends which the picture below shows.

The brick lining of the original tunnel is still in great shape and shows the workmanship of people in the late 19th century.

When you get to the end of the brick tunnel, there is a ladder which one has to take to get to the lower tunnel.  As a farm kid, I had no problem climbing from the edge of the roof between the tunnels to the ladder to get below due to my years of climbing over and on top of things.  Once I got to the lower tunnel, it was a cesspool of mud created by decades of water infiltration with the fines of the clay at the bottom but you can see the constructed top of the newer tunnel with its power source for the trolley.  Someone did install lights at some point but you can see the brick on the sides from the original tunnel and then the roof built for the newer tunnel.

Here is a zoomed in shot on the roof of the newer tunnel which had some steel beams with some heavy concrete cross beams.  You can see the concrete starting to deteriorate with the deposits creating stalactites.  The electrical source system is still partially in place in this picture.

The picture below is looking west towards the cap of the tunnel which was constructed when I-35 was built on the west side of downtown.  Here you can see the aluminum ladder onc has to climb to get from the upper tunnel to the lower tunnel.  Note the solid concrete cap MoDOT built to block the tunnel off from the interstate.

Here's some calcified remains of the streetcar rails.

I'm not sure exactly what this is in the picture below but I am assuming the brick is the base of the original, steeper tunnel and this shows the excavation to build the newer, less steep tunnel.

This shot looks to me like they drilled steel rebar into the limestone to act as a foundation for the original tunnel to provide a stable footing for the brick to protect the integrity of the excavation. I am guessing that when they built the new tunnel, they just blasted down and left these anchors for the brick as they existed.

Here is what I think might be my best shot showing the new tunnel.  The electrical system for the streetcar is still in place.

In the lower tunnel there was some kind of steel material which I assumed held the rail tracks in place. It was full of eroded clay fines which made a "goupy" surface but seemed to permanently petrify the streetcar tracts and ties.

I am still amazed wood is able to survive 80+ years of sitting in a contained and subterranean environment.  This picture also shows a concrete footing built for the lower tunnel.

One thing that struck me from the concrete in the lower tunnel is the pattern on the concrete.  It didn't look smooth like plywood was used to form the concrete walls.  It looked like the tunnel contractors used 1x4s to form the concrete walls.  This would have taken a ton of time vs using 4x8 plywood or metal forms that they use today.

At some point, I am guessing about Washington Street, the lower tunnel ends and a pile of fill was thrown in when they capped it.  At this point, I didn't feel like climbing above the mound of dirt to find the end.  The air quality was trash and my boots were muddy enough,  I didn't want to ruin a pair of pants in addition to boots so I didn't bother climbing any further.

It's pretty amazing the destructive and also how good the preservative power of water is.  The next picture shows the top of the new tunnel and how the steel attachment is still kind of there after 80+ years.

As 0ur group left, I got some more pictures.  Where the original tunnel ended and the lower tunnel had enough vertical clearance, the builders started building cross beams for the room.  I wonder why they left a floor other than they used it for maintenance staff to service the electrical for the streetcar.  The picture below is from where one can access the tunnels and shows the beams built for the roof of the newer, less steep tunnel.

I find the workmanship of our ancestors amazing.  There were a couple of locations where the brickwork was just amazing.  I am guessing this was a spot where maintenance staff could wait if a train was coming. 

Lastly, I took a picture at the entrance showing the walkway DST or whatever they are called now built to get to the tunnel from a parking garage which shows the magnificence of this tunnel and Kansas City's history.

So folks I hope you appreciate posts like this.  I have so many things going on but I find this stuff amazingly interesting and I thank God for a farm kid from central Illinois gets to do what I do and see things like this.  I hope to find more time to do more regular posting because Kansas City is so awesome and I want to make sure future generations have an appreciation for it.  Lastly I can't express to you all how much I love this city and it's history.  This is an amazing place to live and raise a family and it truly is the world's largest small town.

2022 November Election

Well between the new job, normal family life, and a major home improvement odyssey, I had to reset my Typepad password because it's been so long since I've logged on.  I hope 2022 has been good to you.  Tomorrow is election day and you can find you Platte County ballot here and your Clay County ballot here.

I only have three things I am willing to comment on.  The first one is for those of you in Clay County.  I won't articulate my reasons because I made a new year's resolution to reduce induced pearl clutching but I need you to vote for my friend and anti-special interest aficionado Jason Withington for Clay County Commissioner. 

If you want nice things like basic infrastructure and improved parks and trails, there will not be anyone more vocal and committed to actually doing something about them.  The state's sixth largest county with a major manufacturing plant should have nicer things than it does. 

I first met Jason over a decade ago because he wanted to talk about how to get better sidewalks to schools in the older part of the County and understand how things work.  It's pretty easy to see who Jason is and he's not an ideologue or partisan hack or career politician and is the type of voice you need on your County Commission. 

Second issue I want you to vote Yes on Platte County Question 1 which on the back page of the Platte County ballot. 

It is a renewal of the County's road sales tax.  Originally passed in 2003 and renewed in 2013 as a 3/8th cent sales tax, it is back on the ballot as a 1/4 cent sales tax renewal.  Because of this tax, the following projects have been completed within the Kansas City portion of the County in the 25 years it's taken to improve two miles of North Brighton in a county with no road sales tax:

I-29 and Barry Road interchange widening, North Congress south of Barry Road serving Park Hill High School and Congress Middle School,North Congress from 152 to Old Tiffany Springs Road including the portion of Old Tiffany Springs Road in front of Tiffany Hills Park, North Green Hills Road from Barry Road to 152, Barry Road from Weatherby Lake to the Grass Pad serving Hawthorn Elementary, NW 72nd Street between I-29 and Overland Drive serving Chinn Elementary, Northwood Road between NW 52nd Street and I-29 serving Southeast Elementary and Walden Middle, North Green Hills Road from NW Platte Brooke Drive to NW 78th Street serving the Russell Jones Center, and as soon as it gets approval from FHWA Waukomis in front of Line Creek Elementary from Englewood up to the north end of Vaydik Park by the Kansas City Northern Railroad will be under construction.

I will admit my attention span isn't what it used to be and I don't have a good list of roads and bridges outside of KCMO but I do know that over 30 county bridges/box culverts, Jones-Meyer Road, Route 45 from I-435 to Union Chapel, the Humphrey's Road Bridge, and numerous other projects in smaller cities have been completed and benefited from the sales tax.

Over 20 years, that's a pretty impressive list of simple upgrades from hilly narrow Ozarkian roads to urban streets with sidewalks and street lights.  Here's an articles and the renewal campaign website.  Kansas City passed a resolution and has identified that it would want the county to finish improving Waukomis Drive south of NW 68th Street and NW 56th Street from the schools along Northwood over towards I-29:

Section 2. That the City Council expresses its support for utilizing any renewal approved by voters and for successful partnership agreements to improve N.W. 56th Street from I-29 to Northwood Road, Waukomis Drive from I-29 to Englewood Road and from N.W. 62nd Street to N.W. 68th Street, North Green Hills Road from Old Tiffany Springs Road to N.W. 108th Street, North Coventry from N.W. 68th Street to N.W. 76th Street, and Platte Purchase Drive from N.W. 96th Street to N.W. 104th Street which are all currently unimproved roads which do not meet urban and complete streets standards.

Lastly, I hate everything about weed.  The smell, the carbon footprint, the water usage to grow it, the commercial/corporate farming of it, what legalization has done to Colorado and Denver, etc and legalization via Constitutional Amendment is a ridiculous way to legislate so I'm asking you to Vote no on Missouri Amendment 3. 

Also, read the header at the top of the page before you click out, enjoy your flyer free mailbox until March of 2023, and realize that Billy Idol released a new CD in 2014 and it rocks...

Song credit to Billy Idol.

 

Green Hills Road Almost Ready to Open

Green Hills Road is about done and I took some liberty and drove through the job tonight since I've got a pass.  The project is a classic partnership project.  KCMO put in roughly $1M of bond and sales taxes for the design and property acquisition, Platte County obtained a $2M federal grant and used that plus something like $2.3M of its 3/8th cent road and bridge sales tax to pay for the construction and now we've got a complete street where people don't have to walk or bike in the road with cars driving by at 40+mph in ten foot lanes.

This is looking south from NW 78th Street where the project started.

My 11 year old commented that it was really nice and had a big wide sidewalk which is on the east side of the street and is ten feet wide for bikes and pedestrians.  This is looking south towards the entrance to Silverbrooke and the Russell Jones Education Center.

The next shot is looking north from NW 76th Street and the school entrance.

The next picture is looking south from the eastern entrance to Lake Waukomis towards Platte Brooke Drive.  The project included an extension of the median built in the previous phase.  The purpose of this was to provide some traffic calming and beautification.  Back in 2005 KCMO did a study and the 100+ people that showed up to the public meetings were pretty adamant that they liked the rural and treed feel of the existing road even though it had a high number of accidents and fatalities.  People also came unglued at the idea of a four lane road so the hybrid two and three lane concept was chosen.  I hope those that were around then realized their input mattered.  

The southern portion of the project included milling and overlaying the existing pavement.  The first time we drove through here with the kids after the contractor milled off the top 2" of the road, my 18yo commented that "this road is so horrible, it's like Lightning McQueen built it."

The project included putting sod down and in case you ever wondered how a landscaper puts down sod, it comes in a roll and they use a little skid loader contraption to unroll it.  For those of you not familiar with the area, the nice wall was built by Jon and Dave Barth as part of the Silverbrooke subdivision and the design of the street accommodated it and provides some aesthetic enhancement to the corridor.

Sod also has to be watered and it's not that complicated to do.  All it takes is a big tank, a super soaker on a truck, and some dudes.

The next phase hasn't been bid so enjoy the summer of Green Hills before that next phase starts.  You can also read about the history of the corridor and area from an old post here.  It's also the northern entrance into Miltonwood, a once charming roaring 20's hamlet.

You're Going to Pay More in Taxes for Park Hill's "No-Tax Increase" Bond Promise

Since the Park Hill School District refuses to use the very expensive and limited viewership technology called "YouTube" to broadcast school board meetings, I'm left to interpret school board agendas. 

The screenshot below is from the 2017-18 Park Hill School District budget.  In the 2017/18 budget process, the property tax operating mill levy was $4.9183 which was assumed to be the rate ceiling established by the State Auditor's Office (SAO) per Missouri's Hancock Amendment.  There wasn't a voluntary rollback per this budget so you paid more in taxes because assessed values in Platte County increased by 7%. 

One thing to point out is that the debt levy to repay the "no-tax increase" bonds was set and remained at $0.6107 from FY17 to FY18. 

That means your taxes went up because assessed value within the school district went up by 7% that year and people were taxed at the same rate of $0.6107 which means you paid more than the intent of the Hancock  Amendment's goal to limit tax revenue increases to governing bodies greater than 1.5%.

Well guess what happened?  The 2017-2018 budget was adopted before the SAO finished the math and consequently the operating levy was officially lowered to $4.7928 because that was the ceiling established by the SAO.  This action occurred during the August 2017 board meetings.  This kept the operating levy at a rate consistent with the intent of the Hancock Amendment.

The debt levy remained unchanged at $0.6107 which means everyone who had an increase in their assessed value had no rollback and the district received 7% more in tax revenue for debt service because of increased valuations.  People technically had their taxes go up because of increased valuations to pay for the "no-tax increase" bonds.

Now take a look at the current mill rates which were discussed at the 8/8/19 meeting.  You can read for yourself but again property assessments on existing property went up $73.6M or 7.4%

Now did you read the last paragraph above?  I'll repeat it for you:

For 2019, the State Auditor has set the debt service levy ceiling to $0.8298. The district is proposing to voluntarily roll this debt service levy back to $0.7128 to accelerate the repayment of principal on existing debt. This will allow the district to begin building capacity for future capital improvements/repairs to existing facilities and to construct facilities to accommodate future enrollment growth.

Did you pick up on the fact that the debt service levy increased from $0.6107 in FY18 to $0.7128 when property assessments in Platte County have increased over 7% the past two years.  I may have went to Illinois public schools, but that appears that the Park Hill School District has increased the debt service levy (your taxes) by 16+%. Don't believe me?  Well take a look at the district's own presentation and note how they try to convince you with the double asterisks that you're getting a lower debt levy rate because it's lower than what the Hancock Amendment will allow.

Here is the form that Bart Klein is going to sign increasing your taxes for "no-tax increase" bond payments.

Now since again the School District refuses to broadcast meetings, I can't go back and watch the discussion.  I'm left with a screen shot from a presentation for the 8/8/19 meeting where the table shows "Fund 3 - Debt Service Levy" (ie what is paying for the bonds) going from $0.6107 to $0.7128.  Folks, that's a tax increase from 2018 to 2019. 

Now we also have another problem in the fact that the Park Hill School District didn't budget anything for the increased staffing at three new schools and now is running an annual operating deficit which will total over $18 MILLION over the next four years.  Where did I get that number?  Screenshot from a presentation at the 5/23/19 board meeting.  Too bad I can't go back and watch a video to see the discussion and maybe get a better understanding of why this is going on......

This is right after the school board approved using operating fund reserves to pay the capital cost of the new high school.  In case you missed that post, it's here and you just need to scroll down towards the end because it included election stuff.  Did anybody know about this upcoming structural deficit and if so, why didn't anyone ask if spending operating reserves was wise given structural deficits.  Again, since the school district refuses to get with the 21st century and broadcast their meetings, no one will really know. 

One thing I want to point out is that we have someone else starting to watch the school district.  I don't know who is doing this but I understand the anonymity.  I've heard quite a few stories of retaliatory behavior from anyone who doesn't toe the line with the official spin.  You need to check out the Park Hill Transparency Project and follow them on FB and Twitter.

Now those of you sitting out there screaming "yeah but that's not the real story and you're spreading disinformation" I have a simple way to straighten me out and shut me up.  Ask your school board and administration why they refuse to tape and broadcast meetings.  I know there will be quite a bit of consternation with this post but in my quest for transparency from this governmental agency, I feel strongly that meetings discussing our children's education and how our money is stewarded should be broadcast for everyone to see. 

Meanwhile, I just want to point out that tomorrow, the Park Hill School Board is going to vote to raise your taxes to pay for debt/bonds.  The official tax rate hearing notice is here and if you want to ask the Park Hill School Board why they're raising taxes, you should show up tomorrow at 6:55, sign your comment card, and state your objection.  If you get there after 7, they won't take your public comment card and you won't have the ability to address the board.

Basically the property tax mill levy you paid in 2018 was $5.3955.  The property tax mill levy you will pay in 2019 even with the State Auditor's Office required rollback is the same at $5.3955.  Your taxes are going up to cover debt service.  It's in the notice.

I don't know if you've ever heard of "YouTube" but it's this really cool website where anyone with a cell phone camera can record something and post it for people to watch and it's FREE.  Anyways, after writing all of this about how my taxes are going up to cover payments on a "no-tax increase" bond has gotten a song stuck in my head which I'll share with you to enjoy.

Clip credit to The Rollins Band.

Big Shoal Creek Greenway Trail Ribbon Cutting Friday 10/29/21

Come celebrate the newest jewel in the KCMO trail system this Friday 10/29/21 at 2PM.  Event details here.

This nearly two mile trail activates the Big Shoal Greenway and is a collaborative effort from multiple KCMO departments and connects multiple neighborhoods in Gladstone and KCMO between Chouteau and Brighton.  Long story short, the water department installed a waterline along the greenway, the public works department secured $1.35M in federal bike/ped funds for a trail connecting Brighton and Chouteau, and the parks department used those funds to construct the trail along the tree cleared waterline corridor.  Truly a successful project for everyone and now you get to enjoy it.  The best place to access it is on North Indiana right around NE 55th Street where there is a new graded play field and trailhead parking lot. 

Map of the project below with the trail shown in blue.  It goes under both Indiana and Brighton in case you are wondering why there are curvy squiggles on the map.

I do have to warn you that there is a long and rather steep hill along Chouteau but that is what happens when building a trail in a fully developed area with floodplain and topographic challenges.  This is looking northeast from where it starts near Chouteau and you can see the cut that was needed to get the trail at an acceptable slope.  There is a gap in the trail south of here down towards NE 53rd Street as the developer for the old mall is supposed to construct the gap.

This is a 170 feet plus (I think, I don't remember as the plans were done 3 years ago) bridge spanning the floodplain.

It provides the newest IG or FB picture background in the area.  This is looking west back towards Chouteau.  I love seeing all of your trail bridge pictures.

This connection opens up the greenway.   Who says engineers can't design things that aren't straight.

The project has a low water crossing because the floodplain is large through here.  These are always great places for kids to play with sticks and rocks and the creek.  This is looking west back towards Chouteau.

There is a connection and crosswalk on North Indiana but the trail also has the option of going under.

You can enjoy some free artwork by local students.  I wish someone would paint a picture of B.A. Baracus....

This is a new parking lot/trailhead on the east side of Indiana.  There was a maybe 120' x 80' field graded out where there was unmanaged slope which could be used for practices or pickup soocer/frisbee/football and the baseball diamond fences were replaced.

This is looking west back at Indiana around a bend on the trail.  The trees you see were planted by the waterline project for mitigation of clearing and in anticipation of the the trail and have a few years of growth under their belt.

The picture below shows where the trail is right on top of the waterline clearing.  Note how the waterline construction had as minimal intrusion as possible and how the clearing opened up a perfect corridor for the trail.

 

This leads to another open area underneath some old growth trees.  When I was going through here, there was a young family on a blanket just enjoying being outside.

The trail then goes into an area which has never been maintained and has an amazing tree canopy with some old oaks and sycamores.

There is a stretch where the trail had to be straight because of property lines and to be away from the creek but the engineer was able to sneak a little curvature into the design.

The trail does cross Jackson at the street level because the Jackson bridge is short and there isn't clearance to go underneath.  This is another section which isn't flat but just so you know, when I was in a wheelchair post Achilles tendon surgery this summer, I did roll through the trail just to see how it felt from an ADA perspective.

The area between Jackson and Cypress was platted in the 1950's and there was a lake mentioned on the plat with Cypress as the dam.  I am assuming at some point it breached and someone dropped a metal culvert in place, paved over it, and called it good.  It's the only explanation for why there's a bridge at Jackson and downstream 500 feet at Cypress there's a metal pipe. It does get a little tight through here and sometimes one just has to roll with the constraints in the design like snaking between a property corner and a sewer manhole because the creek is just ten feet to the left of the trail.

I have a ton of pictures but I'm going to hop over to just east of Cypress where we have a low water box culvert crossing on the trail.  This is also where the trail goes onto a 40 (+/-?) park tract that has some amazing tree specimens that's never really been accessible to the public.

The trail is built on top of the waterline clearing and in a few years, the tree canopy will fill in and fully shade the trail.  This is looking east towards Brighton.

This is looking east towards Cypress.

The trail connects to the west side of Brighton where it uses the sidewalk on the bridge to cross over to the north and then loop around and underneath the trail.

I encourage you to come out Friday.  There are plenty of places and things money can be spent on so if you enjoy these trails, show up and thank your elected officials who provide the support for funding to implement them.  If you can't make it on Friday, check it out this weekend or the next as the trees start to show their colors.  Repeating the link to the event details again so you can put it on your calendar and enjoy.

Platte Purchase and Route 152 Interchange Status 10/26/21

Well it's been great construction season this fall with no rain and a long string of sunny days.  I took some pictures of the new diverging diamond interchange under construction at Platte Purchase and Route 152.  This project is being done in anticipation of the new Central Bank Sporting Complex, planned new Platte County R-3 school facilities, and commercial development.  The project will be under construction until the middle of next year but was closed to allow work to accelerate and have the off-ramps open before Thanksgiving.

This picture was taken from the the north side of the interchange and looking south from Platte Purchase at freshly poured and sawed concrete.

I thought the paving machine left an artsy path.  This shows the path for someone going south on Platte Purchase and how they will cross over to the "wrong side" of the road.

The gravel base has all been put in place and compacted.  This is looking southwest at the WB on-ramp which pavement is already completed.  The pipes sticking out of the ground are conduits for the traffic signals which take a while to get on the job site because there's a 4-6 month lead time on ordering and someone fabricating the metal poles.

This is looking east towards the WB off-ramp (ramp for those of you coming from Liberty or 169 to get to that large wholesale club) and the off-ramp pavement work is all done.  The wood stakes you see were placed by a surveyor to help set up a string line which the concrete paver uses to guide the curvature and elevation of the new pavement.

Since this is one of those diverging diamond (DDI) interchanges, this is looking south at the east side of the bridge approach where southbound traffic will be driving on the "wrong" side of the road.  I'll point out that the concrete contractor left the gap in the middle because they have to install steel bars along the concrete joint lines and by doing it this way, they can come in, drill and grout the steel bars in, then use the new pavement as the edge forms.  See the green bars sticking out?  Those are rust inhibiting material covering metal reinforcing bars.

This below is a concrete drill.  I haven't seen one of these in action but the hydraulic drill would drill two bar holes in what seemed like just under a minute.

I also took a shot of the concrete paver.  Basically it's an expensive "Play-Doh" machine that takes the concrete, shakes it up to get the air out of the concrete, and smashes it flat.

I noticed some pink markings on the bridge showing the location of the new concrete barriers that will keep cars on the right side of the road.  See all of the green rebar?  That all goes into making a concrete median barrier.  Ironworkers will grout the rebar into the existing bridge deck and then a concrete machine with a steel template will take the concrete from a concrete truck and slither it into the form.  Concrete is simply heavier "Play Doh" and the physics is the same.

Now I have made it to the south side of the bridge and this is looking south at the southern cross over.

This is looking west at the eastbound off-ramp which has all of the concrete in place.

This is looking east at the eastbound on-ramp.  Again all of the ramp pavement is done.

The project also includes an underpass for the Route 152 Trail.  One of the problems with DDI interchanges is the number of bike/ped crossing points and vehicular conflicts.  They are set up for free-yielding traffic flow which is why they work so well where people are trying to get off and on a freeway.  They are set up for pedestrians continuing on an arterial street.  However, I can't think of DDI's that have been built where bike/ped users are crossing the arterial which is the case here so while the road is all torn up, it made sense to put in an underpass to eliminate any possibility of vehicular accidents on the free yielding merges and also not cause substantial delay in someone pushing a walk button to cross and causing all the cars to have to wait at the stoplights.  The grade of the trail and the interchange being much higher than the surrounding ground worked well in this case.

I also saw an operator using a remote controlled dirt compactor.  A big problem in civil construction is settlement and it's always hard to get compaction of the soil placed to where it doesn't settle the pavement.  This is common right before bridges or over cross road pipes where the dirt isn't compacted to the right density and dips in the road develop.  Using a remote controlled compactor eliminates the chance of the operator getting squeezed and hurt or killed if the compactor happened to trap him/her against something immovable like a concrete box culvert.

This is a joint partnership project between Kansas City and MoDOT and I know it's hard to see progress from Route 152 or Platte Purchase so I just wanted to share what the project is looking like.  It will be nice when it's done.

 

Antioch Bible Baptist Free Clothing Give Away

Happy summer.  2021 has been a busy year and frankly I've been busy enjoying life and working on a major home improvement project.  For those of you following along, I'm doing great recovering from my Achilles tear and surgery and been back on the bike this week trying to rebuild strength in addition to climbing up and down ladders and attic rafters. 

It's a little last minute notice but if you have any clothing you've been wanting to purge, you can help others by dropping it off the next day or two at Antioch Bible Baptist in Gladstone for the annual free clothing give away.  This is a completely free event and if you don't have clothes, there is a monetary donation for backpacks using the link here.

First Look at the New Buck O'Neil Bridge

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission awarded the contract for the new US 169 Buck O'Neil Bridge to the winning design-build proposer on Tuesday.  I couldn't get my hands on the material presented at the commission meeting because I didn't fill out a Sunshine Law request on Tuesday like I should have but I did download the commission meeting video and spliced the video which is posted below. 

Using the design-build process, the project is within the $220M construction budget.  The renderings shown below are screenshots from the video so they aren't the greatest but I pulled them out to try and give you some orientation as you watch the video.  In all the pictures, the red arrow points to the north.  I didn't want to screen out the renderings so I used the chicken scratch yellow arrows to show the direct I-35 connections and orange arrows to show the downtown Broadway access.  The first one is high above from the Historic West Bottoms looking to the northeast.

The next one is a little more close up looking northeast showing the direct connects. 

This one is right above the buildings along 5th street looking north at the new bridges and how the direct connections split.

The one below is over the Missouri River looking north.  There is a sidewalk trail on the east side of the bridge.

The next one is looking northeast along Beardsley Road just south of 4th Street but north of I-70.

The next one is looking west from 4th and Broadway/Woodsweather.  The old bridge would be right over the top of where the picture would be taken.

Lastly, this is looking northwest at the downtown airport from high above I-70 downtown.

You can watch the video and pause it and rewind it to see it all.  It's a long clip.  The first gentleman talking is Patrick McKenna who is the MoDOT Director and the second is Ed Hassinger who is the Chief Engineer.  I included them in the video because they give some background but also give thanks to their dedicated staff who has been working some long hours the past two months reviewing the desi9n-build proposals and going through all the government red tape to get to this point. 

I know that the project director Mary Miller has been working long days the past two weeks straight getting this very complex project to this point.  I can't say how proud I am of all the folks that have worked on this project.  This is a big deal for the region and will be a lasting legacy for everyone involved in the project.  Enjoy the video but keep in mind the final details will still need to be worked out this year during the formal design process and things may end up being slightly different.

 

 

Platte County Specific Ballot Questions 8/4/2020

I've been having so much fun this summer that I forgot my blog password!  We've been taking advantage of cheap travel rates this summer because people are too scared or unable to get out of the house.  I did need to log in tonight and make sure you are aware of two really big questions on the ballot next Tuesday 8/4/2020.  After initially posting, I've been given some constructive feedback that I just need to tell you to vote "YES" on the two Platte County questions.  However, if you want the reasoning, continue on.

Before we get into the questions, I want to set the tone.  The week after the April 2019 election where the jail tax was defeated, a few of us were sitting around going "holy crap, we're headed into a financial train wreck in 2021." 

Why were some of us deeply concerned?  Somehow county politics was devolving into some tribalism and it all revolved around the 1/2 cent parks and storm water sales tax.  One side of the electorate just couldn't believe the County is collecting and spending $9M a year on parks and storm water when the Sheriff's Office wasn't fully funded and was losing deputies hand over fist because the County salary structure wasn't anywhere close to being competitive with other governments.  The other side of the electorate saw a serious effort to eliminate the parks and storm water sales tax and wasn't going to budge from renewing it at the 1/2 cent.

Both sides in my observation cared deeply about the County but were aligning in a very adversarial position and it wasn't going to be good for anyone because the parks and storm water sales tax expires in December of 2020.  I was not horrified but we were looking at a horrible situation in January 2021 where we would have no parks and storm water funding to build and maintain what we want and no resolution to the law enforcement funding.  Both sides would have nothing and the County would not be better for it.

So some of us called our Commissioners the same week and basically said there needed to be a process to vet out the options with people who are not tied to County staff, the Commission, or any elected office.  It needed to be an independent review by people with different backgrounds and not biased for or against either position.  The committee members were selected by the Commission and if you read the committee news release, you can see the varied backgrounds of everyone.   I was on the committee. 

You might think I selfishly wanted this so I could get control over the discussion.  You would be right in the fact that I selfishly wanted on the committee because this is such a crucial decision point and I'm not planning on moving anytime soon.  I wanted to make sure all sides were heard out and meshed together to understand each other's viewpoint so a long term solution could be worked on.  I feel that spending $9M a year on parks and storm water when the sheriff's office can't fund salaries is not good government.  I also am a proponent of parks and trails and while I'd love trails everywhere and a playground in every neighborhood, we shouldn't be building things we can't take care of.  However, there does need to be some capital to maintain what we have and to build things as our population grows.  My selfish agenda was to come up with something blended that worked for both sides and didn't over fund so that someone would go out and build a bunch of public buildings that cost so much to maintain. 

I could go into more detail on everyone on the committee but the news release does a good job.  Everyone brought something to the committee from their perspective and biases that was heard out and I feel reflected the both sides of the debate and limited government conservatism.  We heard budget and operation presentations from the sheriff's office, prosecutor's office, parks and recreation department, and county auditor. 

In summary, after six months, the committee was 100% unanimous with a recommendation that the existing 1/2 cent tax structure be put to the voters as two separate questions.  While it appears that the sales tax was cut in half to appease both sides, this was based on some superb revenue and expense projections done by two folks which looked at the next ten years.  I can't give enough thanks or kudos to Gordon Cook of Cook Consulting Group who took time from his business to interview and discuss details with department heads and the county auditor, Kevin Robinson, who also did a lot of work reviewing Gordon's data.

You can read the entire 21 page report here.  I am going to show you the working spreadsheet created by Gordon that the committee used to determine what level the tax structure should be set up.  Now this is a bunch of CPA type detail that I would expect very few people to understand.  I just want to illustrate that the committee was using actual historical expense data with expected expenses on an annual basis to 2030.  It is also important to keep in mind the committee and Commission wanted to make sure there were emergency reserves.  As we saw with the federal radio mandate and with the covid shutdowns, it's responsible to plan for unexpected events.  These spreadsheets were set up to do what if situations and there was some robust debate between committee members.  This wasn't a one or two person controlled committee with some dominating egos.  Again, the Commissioners need to be commended for their choices.

Here is the screenshot from the law enforcement side of the analysis.  Under the assumptions from historical expenses and projected revenue and expenses until 2030, if we approve a 1/4 law enforcement sales tax, in 2030, we will have funded a responsible increase in the sheriff and prosecutor's offices to accommodate a decade of population growth and also an operative reserve just over $7M.  I need you to note that this 1/4 cent sales tax will not provide any funding for a new jail.  As you should know, I am very anti-public building because they tend to be over designed, over budget, and a monument to wasted space.  The committee agreed and so did the Commission because the ballot language specifically states that these funds are not to be used for a new jail.

I am very confident that this level of funding will adequately fund our sheriff's office and will not over fund it to allow purchasing of a bunch of equipment or facilities we don't need.  While I think Sheriff Owen is very responsible and makes due with what little he gets budgeted, I don't know who might be there in 2028.

Here is the screenshot for the parks and stormwater analysis.  I understand why the tax was set at 1/2 cent years ago.  It was to build and expand the two community centers.  Community centers are extremely expensive to build, operate, and maintain.  Luckily we have the YMCA as our operator and those two buildings are generating revenue to handle O&M.  We may WANT one but we don't NEED another center or pool therefore we don't need a 1/2 cent sales tax. 

There was a long discussion on setting the new tax level at an amount to just maintain what we have vs setting it at a level to build new things.  Sales tax rates were set at 1/8 and 3/8, 3/16 and 3/16, 3/16 and 5/16, etc and the committee was able to see the impacts at respective levels.

The committee wound up agreeing that some new capital is needed to support a growing county and to take advantage of funding partnerships with cities.  Besides finishing a connected trail system, I fully supported some type of funding to allow for a grant program to provide for playgrounds and swings in all of our cities because there's nothing better to combat video game laziness than playgrounds and swings.  Kids who live in a town like Dearborn should have a place to walk or ride their bike and play together.  There are also some places with storm water problems that need to be addressed.  Under our analsysi a 1/4 cent parks and storm water sales tax is projected to generate enough to fund County parks/storm O&M and allow for a capital program of $24M for new park amenities and $6.25M for storm water improvements.

How that capital program gets spent would be up the Platte County Park Board.  The storm water projects would be chosen by the Commission. 

Now you may be wondering what type of improvements we can get for around that amount?  Well Gordon asked me that question and over a weekend I put together an example plan if I ruled the world.  I would knock out our two biggest storm water problem areas, finish a connected trail system in the southern part of the County where we've started, and set up a grant program.  In 2030, we can renew and keep connecting the County.

Again, this is me acting like king and using my years of professional experience and understanding development and business attraction to maintain and grow the tax base.  The Park Board which is appointed by the Commission would need to do a planning process to determine how to spend it.

I think Gordon wouldn't mind me sharing this story as long I as I tell everyone if I was a small business owner, I would have him on retainer to guide my future business financial decisions.  As we were deliberating, he mentioned that he wasn't exactly excited about growing the parks system and the associated O&M liabilities but after showing the map above and how it connected a lot of things, he mentioned that he saw how people liked our trail system and understood why people didn't mind paying a sales tax for them. 

As I mentioned, the committee was 100% united in a 1/4 and 1/4 cent sales tax breakdown.  None of us took this lightly.  There was a motion to split the tax at a 1/4 the night we first started looking at the spreadsheet but some of us weren't ready to make a decision without talking to some folks and looking at the numbers ourselves.  We ended up coming back a few weeks later and all agreed that 1/4 and 1/4 was the right mathematical decision based on all the information in the projections.

Here is how the questions appear on your ballot. 

For those of you that live in KCMO, you might need some more Platte County deputies on patrol if some of the "abolish prison/police" leftists get their way.  For those of you that live in smaller cities like Lake Waukomis that are relying on the County to provide law enforcement, you need to vote yes because the current funding levels don't provide the level of service you used to get from your own departments. 

Again, these funds are not going to be used for a new jail.  I had joked in the meeting that if ever I was being held hostage, my code phrase would be "I think we should raise taxes and build some new public buildings."  If you ever hear me say that, PLEASE send help.  The committee and Commission agreed with that limitation.

Anyone who might be thinking they can vote yes on one and no on the other, just keep in mind this keeps the funding for he County at the same level.  If one passes and one fails, the County Commission will have to cut services.  We need reasonable funding for our parks and our law enforcement.   We can do that by keeping our sales tax level the same. 

I could go into a bunch of other items and discussion points and you could bring up what ifs or problems with the analysis but I will close with I have not seen another governmental entity pull its executive leadership together with experienced citizen volunteers without any political influence by the governing commission, labor unions, or the building industry to come up with a solution.  It frankly is a text book case of how good government can work and Dagmar Wood, John Elliot, and Ron Schieber need to be commended for realizing the importance of this decision for the future of Platte County.

You also have a question on expanding Medicaid which isn't well thought out and legislating by ballot which is full of unintended consequences.  If you are a no vote on this, make sure you vote no on it and not the County questions.  Also, if you are all hot and bothered by the covid shutdown created cuts to education from the state budget, wait until the state budget has to fit this into an existing strapped budget.

Lastly, this post took 2 hours to put together.  In case you are wondering why I'm not publishing lately, it's because we've been busy enjoying this summer.  If you think my analysis is useful in your decision on how to vote on Tuesday, please feel free to share the post. 

Latest Metro North Mall Plan Change

If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say right?  I mean I should be able to say something about the Metro North Mall redo with it's lucrative TIF financing package but I don't.  I mean I look around at floundering or ho hum retail developments all over and wonder why we keep doing what we've been doing when the market wants residences and employment integrated with it. 

Metro North posts were such a big hit when I started this blog that I created its own tag to make all the posts easy to find.  The lack of progress has bored me so I haven't bothered giving time to writing about the many plan changes since the TIF plan was approved because I didn't think the redevelopment had any viability.   It's just a monument to asphalt parking lots and cheap retail property.

There is a development plan that I think is a step in the right direction that was recently approved by KCMO on the old movie theater site (away and separated by a massive road and parking lots from the retail).  It's the dark green area in the map below.  All these renderings were pulled from the attachments for KCMO Ordinance 200369.

One thing to note is the plan and map show a future street connection over US 169 which is not feasible from an engineering perspective.  How do I know that?  Well I did a rough design of it and it won't work with the golf facility built as it was.  Someday maybe there will be a trail crossing but it needs some money and apparently there wasn't enough money in the $71M TIF to help finish the Route  152 Trail over US 169 and make the center accessible by something other than car and connect Clay County to our awesome, connected Platte County trail system.  A trail overpass project has some federal money that would be leveraged and just needs some local funding.

Here's another site location rendering looking northwest.  There's that unbuildable car bridge again.

What's being proposed is a five story office building.  It's been rumored to be a possible location (along with a few other sites) for the relocation of the FBI building at Summit and 14th Street downtown.

I know you're here for my architecture review of the project but in this case the architect for the project used to live in the dorm room across the hall from me at the University of Illinois and could share some very hilarious and juvenile stories about the Loudmouth.  I'll just say that this is the best building I've ever seen designed and he should be hired to design all your buildings.  All other architecture is trash and you're just wasting your money if you hire anyone else. 

Below are renderings that show the height of the building compared to the golf nets.  Let me just say, I kind of wish it was taller.  Those golf nets have become the defacto skyline for the northland and it would be nice to have a building with vantage of the two county area.

This is a step in the right direction from a land use standpoint.  I just wish the powers that be would see the upside of developing a real mixed-used development with 5000+ permanent residents who could support the retail in the area.  If people aren't driving to Zona Rosa for the nuance and compactness and Barrytowne is across the highway with plenty of big box space, what makes anyone think that they'll come back to what basically is every other shopping redo in the area? 

That's the problem with approving private infrastructure only TIF's like this.  The Antioch and Bannister Mall sites sat for years with TIF plans in place but no incentive or timeline for the redeveloper to use them.  We're going into the latter half of this TIF's first decade with nothing but rubble and a golf place to show for it.  I guess I shouldn't be so pessimistic.  The leases at Zona and Tiffany Springs Marketcenter are now over 10 years old so I'm sure some of those tenants might find themselves a sweet deal to move to Metro and fill out the space.  In the meantime, Metro North Crossing is still a just another suburban big box/strip mall/parking lot monument and will continue to bore me.

US 169 Buck O'Neil Bridge Update

Well amazing what a six month hiatus does to average daily page views...... 

Let me just say it's been one heck of a six months.  You wouldn't believe anything I would tell you about it other than as of two weeks ago, I am no longer with KCMO so now I can officially take off the muzzle and contribute as a 100% private citizen. 

Now keep in mind being a private citizen and taxpayer first while working in government was a major factor in my effectiveness because I ignored a lot of time wasting meetings, "no-value added" red tape, and make work processes that some people thrive on following and miss the forest from the trees.  If you're in government, just remember it takes a lot of effort to fire you so do what you need to do and work for the citizens.  It's kind of fun figuring out ways around the roadblocks.  Before I digress more and before I get started on the post just a little reminder that your elected officials are under a lot of stress and you should be praying for them as they handle all of this mayhem.  What a weird and stressful time.

We are almost at the point of no return on a new US 169 Buck O'Neil Bridge.  On Wednesday the KCMO Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will hear Ordinance 200222 which authorizes a funding agreement between KCMO and MoDOT and will be the final piece in the financing puzzle.  You can go to the ordinance website and download the PowerPoint presentation or you can watch the video below that I converted from a PPT to a 1:45 video file that's easier to absorb then downloading, finding it, and clicking through it.

In case you have forgotten, we are four years into federally required environmental planning that must be undertaken before a new bridge moves into design and construction.  Last August I did a post on the US 169 Buck O'Neil Bridge alternatives that were being considered.  Sidetracking here but a lot of you responded (I think it was over 1700 comments) and there was a zip code map created which showed a lot of turnout from 64151 and areas all over the metro so you taking the time to participate really did help move the conversation and get us to where I think we need to be.

Over the winter those alternatives have been refined based on comments and other considerations and the Environmental Assessment (EA) is almost complete and there is a "preferred alternative" which has been released for public comment.  I highlighted "preferred alternative" because that's the federal process buzzword and it is important to note that this project will be a "design-build" project where the designer and builder will be teamed together and submit a bid on the project with a design and a price.  You can watch this 9+ minute US DOT video on the process if you get bored (or it rains tomorrow and you've got nothing to do outside).   There's a chance that someone (hopefully) comes up with a better final design than the preferred alternative so what gets built won't look exactly like what is being shown. 

Also, there's no rendering or detail on what the new bridge will look like because that's up to the design-build team to figure out.  Well you might be asking how do we know we are getting what we were promised?  That's a perfectly legitimate question.  What the EA does have are commitments for the project which are listed below.  You'll note commitment B-3 because that's what a lot of you noted in your August comments as being important to the project.  All of these items will need to be done by the design-build team in order to be a responsive and eligible bidder.

Here is an overview of where we are in the project schedule from the public hearing displays presented on March 10th.

Here is recap of the study area.  Don't freak out about the study extending all the way up to the MO 9 interchange.  These federal studies have to have a ending point at an intersection or another highway.  Nothing is going to be done to the section between Briarcliff and the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport (CWBDA in acronym world).

Here's the expensive West Alternative. 

Here's the central and preferred alternative.

And lastly here is the adjacent alternative which costs just the same as the central but is more impactful to properties, the urban fabric, and more structure to maintain.

The north end of the CWBDA er Downtown Airport will get an improvement for ingress/egress and since there's not much room to manuever will probably look exactly like this.  It will get a new southbound on-ramp to replace one removed at the bridge today.  This will cut down on some of you "cutters" who make everything worse by creating the a double merge delay on the bridge today.   It would have been a little clearer to label the new, relocated, and improved ramps.

The left exits at the bridge will go away and people will only be able to get off when going northbound from the new bridge to get to the Airport.  The existing ramps halfway up the outer road will be upgraded with some more acceleration/deceleration distance.  Wasn't much that could be done here because there's always concern in this town with losing one parking space even if it solves world peace.  I mean seriously what is it with this town and parking?  I parked for free downtown for 10 years yet all I hear is people saying it's a pain in the rear to park downtown.  Of course I walked four tenths of a mile one way but it saved me $70/month and allowed me to lavishly partake in a steady fast food and pizza diet.  I know you aren't afraid of walking because I see a lot of you doing it more and more lately.........

Also in retrospect it might have been better to do the outer road pavement in a different color to differentiate it and make it easier to see but when these were being developed I kind of had my attention on other things.

Lastly since it's an environmental document, here's all of the environmental issues and items mapped with the preferred alternative overlaid on them.  It's kind of like a game of operation.  Squeeze the improvements in without touching anything that will make US DOT buzz.

The alternatives were evaluated using a matrix and which graphically summarizes how a lot of the discussion and analysis in the document.

Also below are the draft project goals and draft design-build procurement schedule.

Now all of this is contingent on the city/state funding ordinance passing out of committee this week.  Since City Hall is closed to visitors, it's actually rather easy to share your opinion on the matter.  Just put Ordinance 200222 in the subject and send an email to [email protected] and keep it short and sweet unless you want to add "the folks in the City Clerk's office are underappreciated and underpaid and Council should realize how much they make Council's job easier and pay them more because they are some of the funnest people to work with in City Hall."

Here is the official notice from the meeting agenda on how to watch and participate. 

Due to the State of Emergency declared for the City of Kansas, with the ban on gatherings of more than 10 people, we are asking residents to watch the meetings online and submit public comments by email.

Those who wish to comment on proposed ordinances can email written testimony to [email protected] Comments received during the ordinance discussion will be read aloud by the City Clerk during the public comment period. Comments received after the ordinance discussion will be added to the public record by the Clerk.

The city provides several ways for residents to watch City Council meetings:
• Livestream on the city’s website at www.kcmo.gov
• Livestream on the city’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYYgwhGr1HSqRi_h5uPF2Kg
• Watch Channel 2 on your cable system. The channel is available through Time Warner Cable (channel 2 or 98.2), AT&T U-verse (channel 99 then select Kansas City) and Google Fiber on Channel 142.
• To watch archived meetings, visit the City Clerk’s website and look in the Video on Demand section: http://kansascity.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2

Since the pictures above might be a little hard to see, here is a slightly zoomed in view of the preferred alternative so you can see the text.

Here is MoDOT's project webpage for the new US 169 Buck O'Neil Bridge where you can follow along.  Also you need to follow their YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter accounts to stay in the loop.  The people who produce content for MoDOT spend a lot of time and effort putting this information out there and so they want you to be as informed as possible because there's nothing more annoying than someone when construction starts or gets finished dropping the old "I didn't know ANYTHING about this."  Don't be that person.

Just so you know a post like this takes about two hours to work up which I usually use to watch cartoons with toddlers so we'll see how the Line Creek Loudmouth evolves going forward.  Feel free to give me some feedback on what you think I should focus on.  Check out all the category tags on the right side of the website and let me know what you find interesting.  I'd appreciate positive feedback because I am fully aware that I am a balding head stooge and make almost everything up even though I couldn't make up half the stuff I do even if I tried............

Also if this is your first foray into the new US 169 Buck O'Neil Bridge, you can read all my past posts by clicking on the subject tag here and get caught up on everything I had time to share.

US 169 Buck O'Neil Bridge Detailed Alternatives

Well things are starting to get real.  There are now somewhat detailed drawings showing where the new US 169 Buck O'Neil Bridge might go unlike the bubble renderings completed during the larger I-70/US 169 study.  MoDOT has created a narrated online public meeting.  It provides some explanation of what all is going on and you can watch it at your convenience.  To avoid skewing or imparting personal bias, I'm just going to lay out the slides.  I will say that this is probably the most complex project MoDOT has undertaken in the past twenty-five years because of the complexity of the Missouri River, a functioning and busy airport, a transcontinental railroad river crossing, three separate railroads with geometric constraints, historical area of the origin of Kansas City, commuter and through traffic, and urban connectivity.  There's no easy answer otherwise it would have been done earlier.

In all of these slides, the Charles Wheeler Downtown Airport is above the top of the aerial, I-70 goes from left to right, and the I-35 west freeway loop is in the lower left hand corner.  The options get more expensive the further west the bridge goes because of the geometry of the three railroads and limited places to put bridge piers.

First option is the "No Build" Alternative.  Federal process requires establishing a baseline condition to show what happens if nothing is done. 

For the "Build" alternatives, the exhibits are color coded.  The dark blue denotes long span bridges.  Long span bridges like the span over the main channel can be 300-450 feet long but the girders have to be steel and are like 12-20' feet tall.  The light green denotes short span bridges.  These can be 20-150 or so feet long and can be concrete or steel.  This is your typical overpass bridge like the one we are building at Old Tiffany Springs Road over I-29.  The yellow denotes pavement on existing grade or built on with retaining walls.  The light blue denotes the I-35 direct connect flyovers.  In all the alternatives, the new bridge will have three lanes northbound for merging as crossing the river and one of the lanes will function as an exit only lane for the ramp to the Downtown Airport exit because there's no way to widen US 169 north of the airport because of the River and railroad yard.

The West Alternative is the most expensive because of the geometry of the three railroads creates a very limited places to put bridge piers hence more dark blue.

The Central Alternative is a little cheaper than the West because there's more room to place bridge piers so the bridge spans are shorter (and consequently cheaper).  It has less dark blue and more light blue which leads to a lower cost.

The consultant team did a rough exhibit to show what the I-35 direct connect flyovers would look like because the urban design and impact of this project is important to understand. 

The Adjacent Alternative builds the shortest bridge possible but adds some additional turn lanes to push more cars through the 6th and Broadway traffic signals.

The Adjacent Alternative has the option to add I-35 direct connection flyovers later which is shown below.

There isn't planned to be much change to the highway north of the Missouri River.  The left hand ramps will go away and Richards Road will be slightly adjusted to the west to make the right-in, right-out ramps up to proper standards for high speed merging.  These changes will require approval from the Federal Aviation Administration which adds another level of complexity to figuring all of this out.

Lastly, since the Trump Administration announced the 2019 INFRA grants and Missouri received $81M to build a new Rocheport I-70 Bridge, that triggers Governor Parson's $300M bridge bonding program.  For details on that, check out Fox4's Dave D'Marko's story last month.

Now that you've read all this, watch the online public meeting.

You are now up to speed on the project.  Here's the key part.  During the I-70/US 169 study that started all of this, over 2700 of you participated with the online surveys.  The response was from all over the metro as shown in this zip code heat map.  

Let's duplicate that response and make sure you share the presentation and survey with your friends.

Here is the official MoDOT US 169 Buck O'Neil Bridge online public meeting page.

Here is the survey.  Make sure you do this as soon as you can.  I created a FB page event to remind you if you want to click here and add it to your calendar.  Don't pass up the opportunity to help influence decisions that will impact the greater Kansas City metro area for the next 75 years.

Maplewoods Parkway Groundbreaking

Sometimes I forget things I post on this site and probably should follow up every so often.  This is one of those cases.  If you've been reading for a while, you might remember back in 2016 a lot of you commented when KCMO applied for a federal grant to rebuild and improve North Woodland. 

Thanks to some crafty grant writing and overcoming some things unmentioned, in August/September of 2016 KCMO received a $6M federal grant towards construction and had a public meeting prior to securing right of way back in 2017.

Well all the easements necessary for the road were secured, all the federal red tape was satisfied, and less than three years after receiving federal funds, the Kansas City Missouri Parks and Recreation Department has bid and awarded a contract to rebuild the corridor and will be breaking ground next Tuesday July 30, 2019 at 10AM. 

The official big brother social media invite is here so you can add it to your calendar and share the event. 

Join us! Tuesday, July 30 at 10am #KCParks #goKC More>>https://t.co/45XRY2n75P @KCNorthlandInfo @NorthlandNewsCC

— KCMO Parks and Rec (@KCMOParks) July 25, 2019

In case you missed the meetings or other posts, North Woodland from 96th Street up to Shoal Creek Parkway will be rebuilt as a two lane parkway with on-street bike lanes, curbs, streetlights, a sidepath trail on the east side, and a sidewalk on the other. 

The project will also include roundabouts at 96th Street, 100th Street, 106th Street, and Shoal Creek Parkway to eliminate the traffic stoppages caused by the 4 way stops.  Here are some excerpts from the public meeting display.  I'm sure some things changed as the design was finalized but it should give you a general idea of what the final project will look like. North is the right and west is to the top of the pictures.  This one is from 96th Street at the left roundabout and 100th Street at the right roundabout.

Next one has the 100th Street roundabout on the left and the overhead power lines/station/Staley golf maintenance shed on the right.

Next one continues with the the overhead power lines/station/Staley golf maintenance shed on the left and the 106th Street peanut about on the right.

Last one has the 106th Street peanut about on the left and the Shoal Creek Parkway roundabout and end of the project on the right.

Why roundabouts?  Simple, the roundabouts are more efficient than 4 way stop and signalized intersections.  One has to just go one mile west and look at how overbuilt the North Oak and Shoal Creek Parkway is.  Signals create inefficiency which create the need to widen to four lanes.  Rather than overbuild the project in three phases, over half the corridor can be rebuilt as a safe road.  Think of North Brighton north of Vivion Road which is 5 lanes and then turns right back into an unimproved 2 lane farm road right in front of Ravenwood Elementary.  That project was done back in 2010 or so and almost ten years later the next phase is about to begin because 5 lane roads are extremely expensive.  Ask yourself if you'd want to wait another twenty years to fix the unsafe corridor or would rather have a safe two lane parkway.

One day when one of the kids had a practice at Happy Rock Park, I took my bike and rode the Shoal Creek Trail up to Barry Road then took Maplewoods Parkway up to 96th Street.  I then continued up to about 106th Street where I turned around.  I've ridden my bike on Route 9 through the 635 and 169 interchanges, Broadway through Penn Valley Park, 47th Street in the Plaza, and Front Street in the Northeast Industrial District and let me just say that North Woodland was by far the street I felt most likely to die on.

There is no semblance of a shoulder and it's an instant drop off at the side of the pavement.  The pavement is trash because it's a gravel road that just had some asphalt slapped on it over the years.

The hills hinder sight lines so it's hard to see a car let alone a walker or bicyclist.  I had the pleasure of taking the ditch when two big trucks went by.

The project manager for the Parks Department that did this job worked his tail off and gets all the credit for it.  I'd name him but he'd chew me out because he's extremely humble.  If you live in the area, check out the groundbreaking and thank him for leading a positive team that was focused on getting the road rebuilt and getting it rebuilt as soon as possible.

I'm not sure of the phases and which portion will start first but if I were you, I'd follow KC Parks on social media here, here, here, and here to stay up to date on things all over KCMO.  You might also need to remind me to do some follow up posts as construction happens.

Clean Out Your Closet and Help Others

Let's be honest. We all have more than we need so now it's a good time to clean the closets and help others. 

Antioch Bible Baptist Church in Gladstone is having its annual clothing give-away this Saturday and it's an annual event where the Church offers our community free clothing.

You can help!  If any of you have some gently used clothing you are looking to donate, it can be dropped off at Antioch Bible Baptist (800 NE 72nd Street, Gladstone, MO 64118 or 3 blocks east of North Oak).

Children and infant clothing is in big demand at this event and if you could assist by separating and label the clothing according to men, women, teen girls, boys, girls, infant boys, and infant girls, it would help all of our volunteer sorters get the clothing set up in the right area.  Tax-receipt forms will be available for those of you that are willing to help. 

Famous Moments in American Pop Culture

Ladies and gentlemen, on this day 28 years ago in 1991 one of the most iconic songs of the 90's (and unofficial song for the Line Creek Loudmouth) was released.

Sit back and enjoy Right Said Fred.

 

 

Northland Sports Complex Moves Forward

First off, it you are doing business and are not a member of the Platte County Economic Development Council, you need to be.  Follow this link here and see how they can help you.  They also have some free data and reports you can peruse this weekend while sitting a swim meet or just hanging out at the pool.

Today the KCMO City Council approved an ordinance which would move the proposed Northland Sports Complex into the next phase.  The ordinance states:

Directing the City Manager to issue a Request for Information and a Request for Proposals/Qualifications for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of a new 12-field soccer complex in the City’s Northland; authorizing the Director of Finance to close project accounts; declaring the intent of the City to reimburse itself from the bond proceeds for certain expenditures and recognizing that this ordinance has an accelerated effective date.

You can read the whole thing here and read about the economic impact from my post about it last year (note, I'm still in the middle of a DIY disaster but getting closer to the end).  What does that all mean?  Well it means the City wants to move forward with starting a procurement process to find someone to build and run the thing.  It also means the completion of the gap in Old Tiffany Springs Road from Line Creek Parkway to Platte Purchase is going to be very important to start and get done in the next year.

Here are some snippets from the presentation.  Keep in mind this is all conceptual and subject to change but will give you an idea of where/what the complex will look like.  Here are some of the sites that the EDC team looked at for the complex.

Here is a blow up of site 7 at the Northwest corner of the Route 152 and Platte Purchase Drive interchange.  Costco^TM is on the southeast corner of the interchange or diagonal of the site.  The complex will have one large stadium as the marquee field and also to host World Cup 2026 practices for people to watch from what I've heard.  If the complex was located in this area, there would be some efficiencies with the future Platte County R-3 High and Middle Schools just to the north where they could use the stadium for Friday night football games and parking could be shared. How?  Well, there are only 4-6 Friday night home games a year (maybe 7 or 8 if Coach Utz's team has a good year) and so overflow parking could park on both sides of the new street because all of the soccer fields won't be filled every weekend for a tournament. 

The EDC also highlighted the economic analysis from the report.

You can watch the presentation as given as I downloaded the video from the KCMO City Clerk's website.  You should check out the page and video on demand of committees.  It's a great way to see your government in action and the discussion under consideration.  Maybe someday we'll have that ability in the Park Hill School District for board meetings. 

 

Line Creek Parkway Extension Starting This Summer

If you've been up along the north end of Line Creek Parkway or along North Platte Purchase north of 152, you may notice that there's some tree clearing that's underway.  That work is being done for extending Line Creek Parkway north of Old Stagecoach Road, widen Platte Purchase Drive, and connect the two roads.  Here is an overall schematic map from a presentation to the KCMO Park Board.  It just shows what might happen in the area and is used more as a map that gives anyone looking to invest an area what might happen.  The land use would still need to go through the zoning/entitlement process before anyone starts building anything.

The next map shows what will be built this upcoming summer and some lane configurations along with water and sewer lines.  Again, this was from a board presentation last year so final details will change but it gives an idea of the street layout.

The parkway landscaping and typical sections look something like this.

The project is being funded through the Platte Purchase Redevelopment District which using new taxes off the Costco^TM to pay for improvements.  One thing to note, the street improvements will include an extension of the Line/Second Creek Trail system along the north and west side of Line Creek Parkway.  If you didn't realize it, the Line Creek Trail officially ends at the Route 152 Trail.  The trail along the parkway to the north is technically the Second Creek Trail

What's not shown on these exhibits is the first phase of the Second Creek Trail that will be built in 2020 independent of a street that will veer towards the northwest and follow Second Creek and connect at some point into the Genesis subdivision.  By the way, this wouldn't be possible without a great company like Arvest Bank^TM and Ashlar Homes^TM dedicating easements at no cost to the taxpayer to build the trail.  If you are in the market for a new house, check out the Communities of Green Hills because you'll be connected to this kick butt trail system.  Unlike corporations I've previously noted, these businesses support trails with granting of no cost easements.

The neat thing about Second Creek is that it's a lot different than Line Creek and the floodplain gets wide fast so it's got some wide open valleys and amazing natural diversity.  Here's a preview.

 

 

It's going to be a fun trail to build and connect up to Platte Purchase Park someday.

Old Tiffany Springs Road Bridge Progress April 2019

If you haven't been to Chuck E. Cheese^TM or north of 152 on I-29 lately, it's changing.  The new Old Tiffany Springs Road Bridge over I-29 is going gangbusters.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, the old narrow two lane farm bridge that used to serve the lost city of Tarrytown is being replaced on alignment with a new four lane bridge that completes the arterial grid around the I-29/152 cloverleaf.  Even though it's a state interstate bridge, it's being paid for by federal funds obtained by KCMO and funds from the KCI Corridor TIF.

The project will also add sidewalks and finish a huge gap in the Route 152 Trail and make that a continuous corridor from North Amity to US 169 (see this 152 Trail post for better explanation).  If you're feeling a need for a life threatening rush and can't afford sky diving, try riding your bike over the bridge with its 30" or so concrete railing and steady flow of cars like this.

 

The project will also include an underpass for the future KCI Corridor Trail along the east side of I-29 and the underpass is in place.  Underpasses are more than pedestrian only HAWK signals but don't have the threat of a car going 45mph hitting a child or family crossing the street nor does it impede traffic flow by making cars stop.  This picture is looking north and shows the amount of dirt needing to be brought in and the bridge abutment and retaining wall partially complete on the left.

In the picture above, you can see the construction crane and what looks like a red steel truss or 3D ladder.  That red contraption is the hammer for the steel piles that are necessary to build the bridge support. 

Basically bridges are supported by "abutments" which are platforms for the bridge beams to sit on.  The weight of the bridge and vehicles on it is transferred to the top of the abutment.  However, the abutments alone can't support the load.  In this case steel piles are driven into the ground until they hit a solid bedrock surface so that there is no settlement of the bridge. 

Some of the time bedrock is not always available and so the steel piles are driven into the soil until the pile can no longer be driven.  These steel piles act like nails and the friction between the soil and the steel pile provide enough resistance to support the bridge.  I tried finding something on the internet that showed it but couldn't find what I wanted so I drew up a back of the letter illustration of how loads are transferred from the piles and support the bridge.

How does the pile hammer work?  Something like this video I captured for the Shoal Creek Trail bridge behind Maplewoods Community College.  

Every time that hammer hits the steel pile, it's called a "blow."  Piles are marked with chalk in one foot intervals to show the depth and rate at which the steel pile is being driven into the ground.  Somewhere some program or engineer does all sorts of calculations that calculate the number blows per one foot which the steel pile will meet resistance ie when the hammer hits the pile 42 times and it goes one foot deep, the hammer can stop pounding. 

However from my observation is the pile gets driven and driven until a distinctive "ping" sound starts and the hammer pounds a few times without any movement into the ground at all.  Piles are steel H-beams and are usually very long in this area as shown below.

Once the piles are driven, earth or usually rock is backfilled and compacted.  This is looking west from the east side of I-29 at driven piles.  These will be marked at the right elevation and a cutting torch will cut them to a uniform level.

A reinforcing steel basket will be placed around the piles and then the concrete abutment poured.  I don't have a picture of that frame because the contractor hadn't started work on it yet but you can imagine it from the picture below.

The bridge crosses both I-29 and Prairie View Road so it has three spans and two "intermediate bents" or piers.  This is the pier on the west side of I-29 and it shows the formwork.  I really wish I had a picture of the wire frame because it's rather impressive.

The project will raise Old Tiffany Springs Road just north of Chuck E. Cheese^TM to the same level as the parking lot to the south and will require a lot of dirt.  This is looking east towards Skyview and all of that will be filled in with dirt.

The new road west of I-29 requires a lot of dirt and retaining wall which is going up quickly.  This picture was taken a week ago and looking west over I-29 at the new road just south of Honda of Tiffany Springs^TM.  

Notice the hanging equipment from the crane way in the air and wonder why that's a common construction site sight?  Theft prevention.  It's hard to steal a pump or generator when it's 50+ feet in the air.

The project looks even more impressive when over on North Congress looking to the east.

One thing about concrete is that it is really strong when it is compressed or crunched.  It is not strong at all when it is in tension or stretched so those round columns in the center need steel within the concrete to provide strength against stretching.  Here is how much steel and how it has to be tied all together like Tinker Toys^TM.  

Vertical concrete columns may appear to be compressed but the weight of the load actually creates tension on the outside of the column.  The reinforcing steel cages provide tension support and create the strength to support the bridge loading.  I tried another back of the napkin sketch trying to illustrate how it works.  If a column doesn't have that steel reinforcement, the column will "shear" at a 45 or so degree angle.

The grading on the west side of I-29 is coming along and the storm inlets and pipes appear to be in place.  This is looking east towards I-29.

Did you know that construction grading is quasi-automated?  Some contractors use computer aided drafting and modeling software to create 3D models which are then uploaded into a GPS type system.  These models are used to guide the operators on where and how much to dig of fill.  This is a GPS type system attached to the blade of a bulldozer.  The operator has something in the cab that tells him/her how much to lower or raise the blade to get to the right elevation.

The retaining wall for the project is a mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) wall (us engineers are great with acronyms that make sense to only us.)  The wall will be these narrow MSE panels interlocked together and then held up using friction created by gravity from the "backfill" material on a vertical tie.  In this case, the backfill material is rock and I'm running out of envelopes.

This is looking east along the north side of the new road and shows wall panels without the tie backs.  It also shows some black "filter fabric" between the rock and the dirt.  The filter fabric is supposed to keep the "fines" or small dirt/clay particles from eroding into the rock and causing water to saturate right behind the wall.  Water is bad in these situations because it weighs a lot and adds unnecessary stress to the wall face.  The principle is very similar to the "soil nail wall" installation I explained in 2012.

Here's a ten year old with angst that he was hauled out onto another construction site and a six year old who was super excited for perspective on how big these panels are.

Here's a shot of a tie back buried into the gravel and how it's held onto the MSE wall face.  You might also be wondering why some of the steel is green and some is not.  The green is a coating that is supposed to keep water off the steel and prevent corrosion/rust.

Now bridge designers have other tools in their toolbox and on this one, they used another type of bridge abutment support......the drilled shaft.  Rather than hammer steel H-piles into the ground, a drill digs out soil to a solid foundation like bedrock and then the shaft is filled with concrete.  I'm tired and it's late so geek out on drilled shafts here.  Drilled shafts will hold up the west side of the bridge.

Why would this be different than the other side?  Well the west side is 15 or so feet in the air from the existing ground so there's no way to drive pile and use the dirt to hold it in place I'm assuming.  In this case, round metal culvert pipes are placed after the drilling is done and will be filled with concrete.  That's why you see the shiny tubes in this picture.  To the left of the concrete panels right where I am standing is a 10+ foot drop.  

The boys had fund dropping rocks into the drilled shaft tubes and then listening for water.  They didn't believe me when I said it was 30+ feet deep but once I dropped a rock to show how I knew what I was talking about, they had about five minutes of fun listening for the splash at the bottom of the tubes. 

As we were wrapping up, the six year old loudly pointed out the porta-potty in the median and I had to explain that the crane operator and anyone in the middle of the interstate just couldn't find a non-conspicuous place to take a whiz.  The crane is in the middle of the interstate to drive the pile for the middle pier and there is a lane closed each way on I-29 so you might hit some stop and go traffic getting to KCI.

KCMO has a project website for official information which you can find here.  Work should progress pretty quickly once the piers are in place and they place the bridge beams and hopefully it's all done and ready for Black Friday because we all know we want to make sure Zona Rosa is easily accessible for Christmas shopping...…. 

Shoal Creek Trail Extension Groundbreaking Friday

The winter has gone on too long and given me a March cold.  However, is supposed to be a balmy 50 or so Friday so you should get outside and come to Happy Rock Park for the groundbreaking of the next phase of the Shoal Creek Trail.  Here's a link to the official Facebook link for the event as a reminder. Please share.

If you like these trails, show up and thank your elected officials for funding them.  This one has a federal grant and is another Gladstone/KCMO partnership project like the first phase of the trail.  It's pretty cool what two cities can do working together.  Without this partnership, improvements to Pleasant Valley Road, NE 76th Street, and North Broadway would have not happened this decade.

This section of tell also wouldn't have happened without an easement from the Knights of Colmbus so if any of you are a member of the Council on Kensington Road, thank you.

This section of the trail goes by a large pool in Shoal Creek.  Here's a preview.

More #ShoalCreekTrail pic.twitter.com/1CKjP0my30

— Wes Minder (@WesKCMO) January 10, 2018

 

US 169 Buck O'Neil Bridge Public Meeting (Online For Your Convenience)

Happy New Year!  The weather has sucked and I've been busy.  Also, I've got a four year old who loves watching Scooby Doo on the couch with me before bed and frankly I'd rather do that than sit at a computer posting stuff.  In fact as soon as he gets done with his apple, he's going to be over here wondering when this post will be done.  Too bad he's going to have to wait until his little sister gets done with the book she's flipping through on my lap.....

First off, in case you were wondering, the big "Beyond the Loop"  Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) planning study is over.  The big planning study being the one that looked at I-70, US 169 Buck O'Neil Bridge, and MO-9/Heart of American crossing.  You can review the final plan and presentation at the MARC website here.  I just want to highlight a few things.  First off, a lot of people took time to engage the planning process using the online surveys and it showed in the data.  There were a lot of responses from the 64150/51 zip codes so I know a lot of you took the time to take the surveys which was awesome.  The planning process got more data than paid presidential polling.

While that planning process was going on, some things happened.  Kansas City and MoDOT secured a $25M federal TIGER grant towards the new bridge.  Kansas City renewed its 1 cent sales tax and the MARC region devoted $40M towards the new bridge.

MoDOT did some repairs to keep the bridge open so that a new bridge could be cleared environmentally and then bid for construction.  In case you wanted to see what condition the bridge was in, I pilfered some pictures from MoDOT's Flickr page.  The existing bridge is a "Tied Arch Bridge" which I have an opinion on but I'll let you look at whether or not it is a bridge type built to be easily maintained.  Here is what the bridge deck joints looked like.

Here are the Governor and Mayor probably wondering how many times they drove across the bridge in the past year after they saw its condition and how safe it was to park their vehicles on the bridge with that big gap in the expansion joint. The Governor has a look on his face like "Are you sure it's safe to be standing here????"

Here's a shot showing all the rust in the members that can't be "unrusted" and would need to be replaced with a $50M bridge rehab. 

And yes, I do drive my big van and family across the bridge so you don't need to worry about it now that the short term, critical repair project is done.

Anyways, the PEL was one federal process and now there's a new process to complete an environmental study on just the new bridge crossing.  MoDOT has set up a website for the project here that you can bookmark.  There is an open house (ie no formal presentation) public meeting tomorrow, Tuesday 2/12/2019, at MARC at 600 Broadway but you can review the materials with an online public meeting.  I'm just going to post the displays for you here before you go there so you can see them all at once.

So above is all the stuff that is the base of the study.  Now below are the three cones of impact from a new bridge.  Please note that there's a "process" which must be adhered (and I've written like eight things and deleted them) so I'm not going to explain or editorialize.  The "cones" are areas to be environmentally cleared and don't mean that's how wide or where exactly new bridge or ramps are going.  This is the first step "in the process" so you need to review and provide feedback however that may be.

Eastern alignment with new bridge right next to existing bridge and any traffic improvements at the existing 5th/6th and Broadway interchange.

Center alignment with new connections somewhere just west of Broadway.

Western alignment with the most direct I-35 connection.

Also being looked at is how the Woodsweather Road connection is impacted by a new bridge.

So now you need to TAKE THE SURVEY.  You also need to share the survey.  Help repeat the engagement level of the PEL study.  Now if you'll excuse me, someone's getting cranky about his Scooby Doo and someone's crawling up the stairs....

Best Campaign Sign Reuse Idea Yet

Time for a life hack post before I comment on the hastily rushed (by the Bart Klein led school board) redistricting effort.  Long time readers know that I think campaign signs are one of the top three things to have around the house.  From keeping ice off windshields to bush trimming collection to disposing of lawn refuse to changing oil in the driveway, campaign signs can be used for almost anything your imagination comes up with.  Necessity is the mother of invention led me to my latest reuse.  I thought I had enough sleds stored away but when I broke them out yesterday, two of them were damaged and unusable leaving me with only two functioning sleds and four kids that wanted to go.

Our normal sledding place are the slopes at Northland Baptist Church.  Before I get into the post, let me just tell you how sledding became possible there.  Five plus years ago, the church had a large piece of dirt.  Kansas City needed a bunch of dirt to build the NW 72nd Street extension.  The leadership at Northland Baptist worked out a deal with the City where the City would use the dirt for the new road.  Both parties won because the City saved a bunch of money on not having to haul dirt from far away and the cost to truck it to the site and the Church won because they got their site graded so that they could use it for an open athletic area and for future expansion.  The fact that it is a great place to sled is how I win since it's so close to the house.  It's also a beautiful place to just admire the trees and natural beauty of this area when there's snow on the ground.

Glad we graded that sledding hill @WaldronKC pic.twitter.com/ATnK2eVY97

— Wes Minder (@WesKCMO) November 27, 2018

Anyways, I pulled out a 4x6 campaign sign from my stash and thought we would see how it would be as a toboggan.  I figured since it was plastic and super smooth, it would work better than anything I could get at the store.  It also didn't cost me a thing.  I was the one to try it because I didn't want to have a kid wipe out right when we got started and let me say it is now the only way I will go sledding.

 

The campaign sign toboggan worked real well at pushing snow down and also keeping it from blowing up in my face on the first few runs.  I ended up being able to fit two kids behind me and eventually the boys started using it without me.

And we've got the first crash and I've been informed this involves a "knee to the balls" pic.twitter.com/l2E9XRMGHE

— Wes Minder (@WesKCMO) November 27, 2018

Route 152 Trail Extension Almost Complete

If you haven't been along 152 past the struggling (and under new ownership) Zona Rosa lately you probably haven't noticed that the latest segment of the Route 152 Trail is almost complete.  This segment of the trail will go from Amity over towards I-29 and is almost 2 miles long.  The first half of the project from Congress east towards I-29 and was done earlier this summer.  This is looking east from Congress towards the old hotel which is soon to become an indoor storage center.

The trail crosses Congress just north of the 152 roundabout.  This is looking south towards 152.

The trail goes along the south side of the Riverstone Apartments and was built by Price Brothers when they developed the property.  This is looking west from the end of the trail they built towards Amity.

The trail follows along 152 but because of the design, the trees along the fenceline were preserved and the highway is not visible.  Here is a view to the west from where the open old farmed area transitions to what I assume used to be a pastured area.

The next picture is looking east from about halfway between Amity and Congress.  The highway is on the right or south side of the picture.

This segment is relatively flat but starts a steady decline towards the west.

The trail curves away from the highway and down into a mini streamway valley.  This is looking west at the bottom of the decline.

People are already using it.  This is looking east at the box culvert crossing and the sycamore tree that hopefully will survive.

What's neat about this streamway crossing is the rock channel and series of mini waterfall pools.  There is a great deal of rock and it would be cool if the rock dude/dudette on the Line Creek Trail or some industrious community group did some stepping stones down to the water so kids could get down to the creek and throw rocks in the water.

Next picture is looking east towards the stream from where the trail goes from the highway slope to the valley.

The trail transitions to a flat platform along the 152 westbound off ramp to Amity. 

The trail crosses over Amity at a new median.  This is looking east from the end of the trail.  The guy in the picture is an erosion control inspector and he told me that he just saw a bald eagle flying from the Weatherby Lake area into the woods north of the trail which I just missed seeing.

Looks like fencing still needs to be installed before it's safe to use and the grass seed needs to take before it officially is open.

NW 56th Street/Line Creek Trail Connector Under Construction

Following up on yesterday's NW 64th Street/Southern Platte Pass Trail post, a big connector from the Line Creek Trail is under construction that is going to make a big difference in getting around by bike and for all the folks that live on the west side of Line Creek.  Both the I-29 outer roads, Prairie View and Roanridge, have nice wide, bike-able shoulders.  However, if someone is using Prairie View to come down from Zona or even the KCI area, there is no safe way to get through the I-29/I-635 interchange from Prairie View or Roanridge to the Line Creek Trail.  That means anyone wishing to bike commute has to backtrack a couple of miles via 64th Street to safely get to Riverside/NKC/DT.  I've gone through here before but only going north out of Riverside then using the NB Gateway on-ramp and then tossing my bike over the highway fence onto Roanridge and going through the fence where others had cut the chain link because some people have to walk through there like this guy who was walking through.  This picture was taken as I was biking.

In case you aren't familiar with the area because you don't live in the Sunpointe Village subdivision area, NW 56th Street just dead ends.  Why does it dead end?  Well the elevation difference between where 56th ends and Waukomis intersects  on the other side is 80-90 feet so it is economically and environmentally unfeasible to ever have a street connection between the two because it would require moving a 16" waterline cut through the trees, cutting 10-15 feet into solid rock, and probably a 300-400 foot long bridge over Line Creek.

There used to be a way to get through from the intersection of 56th/Byfield to Waukomis and you can read about it and the old bridge along the Line Creek Trail here.  You can also take a look at the 1964 aerial for the area and the tract of ground that is being used to build the trail by clicking here.  Here is how the trail connector will be laid out to connect between the Line Creek Trail and 56th and still be within a usable grade.

One huge suck thing about this area is the honeysuckle has consumed it and is choking out everything.  Fortunately equipment makers have invented a grinder that fits on the front of a skid loader and not only clears brush, it grinds it up and leaves it in place.  This is a picture, taken from the dead end of 56th, of the track hoe from the rear (shaddup) and a peek at the grinder.

That little machine takes care of all that nasty honeysuckle in no time.  This is looking south from NW 56th Street.  Note that this was the old roadbed of how people got to Riverside and there is a power line with transformer which used to serve an old farmhouse on the property.

The trail will curve to the east/left from the picture above and you can start to see some of the beauty of this piece of park property.  This is looking due east.

Recently a sanitary sewer was put in because a lot of the houses south of 56th were built pre-KCMO annexation and are on septic tank.  The cleared area is one of those sanitary sewers.  This is looking southeast.

The cleared area for the sewer does have some advantages.  Even though it took out some trees, it did take out a lot of honeysuckle and opened up views of the valley.  This is looking east along the sewer and showing a glimpse of the topography.

The next picture is looking southeast and shows another place where the trail crosses the sewer and shows the big drop off down to the Line Creek Trail.  You may be asking why didn't the trail just follow the sewer and the answer is that the sewer doesn't have to have a reasonble grade or worry about complying with Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines.  The trail needs to be longer than the sewer and zig zag so that the 80-90 foot elevation difference can be spread out.  Also, it doesn't make sense to put a trail on top off or too close to a sewer because someday that sewer will need to be repaired or replaced and the trail needs to be far enough away to not be impacted.

That being said, a little bit of the trail is near the sewer as shown by the pink survey stakes.  This is looking northwest and will be a slightly flat part of the trail.  Note the beauty of the oaks (and the evil of the yellow honeysuckle).

This next picture is looking north near the halfway point with the vista of the very dense oaks showing some beautiful color this fall.

This show is looking northwest with the trail on the left of the silt fence.  I just included it because it shows the healthy oaks and a strand of cedars.  It also shows how Ozarky this piece of ground is.

This next shot is looking 180 degrees from the picture above and looking east.  Here is where the bluff falls off to the Line Creek valley.  This part is going to be the challenge for anyone on a bike getting a start up the trail.

Lastly in case you were wondering where it will tie into the Line Creek Trail, this is looking north and it's about 300 or so feet south of the retaining wall and old bridge.  The new trail will be before the cleared area.

NW 64th Street Trail Work Underway

In case you were wondering what the construction was along NW 64th Street east of I-29, the 30 year old narrow sidewalk is being replaced with an 8-10 foot wide trail which will remove the gap in the Southern Platte Pass Trail.  When this work between I-29 and Strathbury at the entrance to the Coventry neighborhood is complete, everyone along Route 45/NW 64th Street all the way out to Union Chapel and 45 will be able to get to the Line Creek Trail.  In the map below, white shows the limits of the improvement and green shows existing trails.

The contractor isn't wasting any time.  This is looking east from the Northland Passage apartments entrance near I-29 where the grading is done and the rock base is ready for compaction.

Concrete work is about halfway done.  This is looking east from NW London which is the second ingress/egress to the apartments.

Sometimes things that need to be retrofitted aren't exactly ideal and have to be worked around like telecommunication equipment.  This is looking west from Strathbury which is the entrance to Coventry.

Lastly this is corresponding looking east view which shows how the new trail ties into the existing trail along the south side of NW 64th Street near the fire station.

This will tie into the trail underneath I-29 which I did a post about in 2012 where you can learn about the type of retaining wall built with that project.

 

 

Tony Luetkemeyer is Going to Win SD 34

Buchanan County only has one outstanding precinct remaining and Platte County has 17/28 in and Tony Luetkemeyer has a 1870 vote lead in Platte and a 1,564 vote lead in Buchanan.