Following up on yesterday's Kansas City freeway planning map post, people in this town have had a long history and determination to carve up Kansas City since the mid-20th century. In the early 1940's, Barney Allis and Ernest Brostrom were concocting the Warwick Thruway which appeared to be some sort of quasi expressway with grade separations and tight interchanges.
The plan included two connections across the Missouri River using the ASB Bridge and a proposed new railroad and highway bridge near the airport. If you were wondering what that area looked like then, check out the illustrations from the Paseo Bridge Toll Study Renderings post which has more illustrations like the one below.
I'm guessing railroad stubbornness and lack of ability to think big picture has been part of the railroad culture since the 1800's. Even back in 1942, the railroad couldn't see the benefits of working with another entity in a win-win situation to figure out a way to build a shared bridge and create a more efficient track alignment from the West Bottoms to the North Kansas City switching yard. Railroad policy makers haven't changed and still can't understand the concept of "return on investment" and don't mind losing hundreds of millions of dollars over the past 70 years by having to operate slow and continually fix and maintain sharp railroad curves. They still operate the same way. Penny pinching, tons foolish (or whatever the saying is).
The plan would have destroyed Washington Square Park, Crown Center, and cut through Union Cemetery.
There also was a second option on how to get through downtown Kansas City that involved tunneling under Main Street.
Download the three strip maps (50MB +/- each) and look over what was maybe the first urban freeway proposed for KCMO.
Download Warwick-Thruway-EntirePlan
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