I had lunch the other day in the Freight House District (FHD) which is quite the amazing redevelopment story. Why do I say that?
Because back in the 70's/80's, transportation planners/engineers had this vision of a 22nd/23rd Street corridor trafficway connecting I-35 to I-70. I haven't figured out the genesis of it other than speculating that the developers of Crown Center wanted direct access to the highway and were selling the politicos that it had to be done.
Anyways, I found an old plan and profile study. The quality isn't great but I thought I would try and give you some idea where the proposed layout is in relation to landmarks. You can download the whole exhibit and zoom in and out as you like.
Download 22nd-ViaductoverCrossroads
I start from the west at I-35 and will work east. The proposed corridor are the darker lines. Southwest Boulevard is highlighted in red. Broadway is Green. Basically the road improvments start at 23rd Street at SW Blvd and 21st Street at the West Pennway exit. The two streets come together under the Broadway viaduct and the parallel the Kansas City Terminal Railroad (KCTRR) tracks.
The trafficway would then bridge over the KCTRR and have an intersection with Main Street (orange) right where the tracks go under the Main Street viaduct. The pedestrian bridge from the FHD to Union Station is the blue line. The FHD restaurants are the red rectangular building.
Somehow the viaduct would magically span the multiple KCT railroad tracks and have another intersection over the tracts at Grand Boulevard (green) and the go over to McGee Street (olive) and then eventually over to Gillham Road. Parts of the corridor were done in the mid-2000's as highlighted with the yellow dash. I noticed that a couple of office buildings were under construction and planned (maroon).
I then used the ultimate computer aided drafting program (MS Paint) to try and highlight the corridor over a current aerial. The road improvements are the red lines and the blue arrow is pointing towards the FHD restaurants.
Why did it never get built? Simple guess? It was too expensive. Why? The project was a long bridge over multiple railroad tracks in a rail switching yard which would have cost a fortune to build not to mention the difficulty of working with railroads. It also would have required tons of right of way and buildings that would have cost a fortune to buy and tear down.
Moral of the story? The engineering profession needs to change. Consultants and planners need to stop proposing fairies and unicorn type projects that can't ever be built or provide limited or no return on the taxpayers' investment. Taxpayers and businesses are strapped. Billions in pensions are unfunded. You can't afford a condo on the beach when you barely have enough money to buy a new tarp to put on top of the mobile home.
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