The City of Kansas City has adopted a long term plan for improvements to the I-29 and Route 45 interchange. The overview of the plan is to relocate the west outer road (Prairie View Road) away from the interchange ramps similar to what KCMO did at Barry Road and I-29. Relocating the outer road allows one of the stoplights to be removed which will greatly increase traffic flow through the interchange.
The plan is designed to be phased in over time as the area develops. North of Route 45, the first phase of the plan was constructed when the new HyVee™ and CVS™ were built and was paid for using funds generated from a half cent sales tax assesed on those stores. The state is requiring KCMO to connect the dead end street to Prairie View Road by 2017. Property acquisition necessary to accomplish that goal is underway. No construction funding has been identified at this time but negotiations are underway to increase the sales tax assessment to complete the construction in the next couple of years.
South of Route 45, a large number of variables create a complex set of issues with multiple property owners and topographic constraints that will take some time to work out. Engineering is underway to make the project "shovel-ready" and negotiations continue with the property owners to establish a funding mechanism similar to what was done on north of Route 45 to pay for the improvements. The goal is to relocate Prairie View Road and remove the traffic signal without doing anything to Route 45 which will reduce congestion underneath I-29. The only way these improvements will be done is if the property owners can work together to make the improvements happen.
The ultimate 25 year plan can be viewed here and assumes that at some point the state will actually invest some funds to improve Route 45 to eliminate traffic backing up onto the interstate and through intersections.
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