Taking a break form my continual reminding (or annoyance to you depending on your interest) that Missouri Constitutional Amendment 7 won't solve transportation funding issues in Missouri, 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.
One of the reasons you will hear from the folks pushing the massive MoDOT sales tax is that Missouri has too many miles of road to maintain. Why is that?
Maybe it's because MoDOT built stuff they didn't need. Want some examples?
Try US 71/I-49/MO-249 in Joplin. Back in the 70's/early 80's someone decided to put the future I-49 freeway way outside of town through the town of Diamond and Fidelity on the MO 59 corridor. If you toggle down, you can see that there was an interchange built at US 60. As you can see however, someone changed their mind and moved the highway over six miles west and built a completely parallel MO 249 freeway. The first time I drove through the area 10+ years ago I was so annoyed at the waste of freeways that I emailed MoDOT and was informed that it was done for economic development. Play around with the aerial...I don't see any eco/devo that is giving us taxpayers ROI.
Another recent waste of a road is Route 13 between Richmond and Lexington. I will say that the old green monster over the Missouri River had to go as the thing was narrow and had to be repaired daily. However, did there really need to be brand new 4 lane road which required a lot of dirt to be hauled a long distance to elevate the freeway out of the floodplain? Are 4 interchanges between two towns with populations of 5,681 and 4,667 respectively really needed? Did we really need 2 interchanges to serve Henrietta with it's 369 people and two sex offenders?
Paired folded diamond interchanges 1000 feet apart with double the ramp pavement and bridges?
In my previous life as an engineering consultant I had a project nearby so I was familiar with the area. There was a hopping family style restaurant in Henrietta that was always busy. Last year when going back to Illinois I exited and took the old Route 13 because one of the boys had to pee. While there I noticed the place was vacant and looked like no one had stopped in the parking lot for years except travelers with kids with small bladders.
Why do rural Missouri towns want these bypasses around their town? Haven't they ever seen the movie "Cars?" These bypasses take travellers out of the town and out of their local economy. I won't even discuss the Warrensburg bypass.
I'm sure these "needed" projects were sold by engineers who prepared traffic projections which created a perceived need so that said engineers would then get the big fat fee to design the improvements.
All government agencies need to start thinking differently and realize it's a different world. Either my profession evolves or withers away as there is less money to design and build things. If I had a choice to do ten $1M projects or one $10 project, I'd make a difference in ten places.
There is a storm blowing in and we need to buy some new bungee cords to keep the roof from leaking....
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