I-35 and Route 152 Proposed Improvements

I used to have an old rule.  The only acceptable reason to cross I-35 at 152 was to get to The Dish^TM and Culvers^TM.  Since we finally got a Culvers^TM in Platte County and The Dish^TM closed, I have amended that rule to only one rational reason to cross I-35 at 152 and that's on Tuesday nights to get to Chick Fil A^TM.  Anyways, a very creative cooperative funding package has been assembled and we are going to get some improvements.  While the improvements won't make it less painful because of the inane amount of commercial land use with limited access points, it will be a little more tolerable for me to go north on I-35.

Before we get into the details, I have to commend our local MoDOT public engagement staff for stepping up and using social media.  They have a bunch of drone photos of the area on their Flickr site. 

Now, back to the story.  The design team will have a public meeting tomorrow (Thursday 1/18/18) as noticed below:

I'll summarize the improvements.  Basically the interchange will be converted to a partial continuous flow intersection or CFI.  What is a CFI?  It's an intersection that consolidates signals as possible to remove left turns.  This dude at Dewberry^TM explains it.  It's one way to handle a buttload of cars.  That's its goal.  Crossing distances for bikes/peds still suck but left turn conflicts are reduced.  It's a way to compensate for land use planning stupidity and engineers who have accepted without critical thought the concept of "access management" and forced us to stoplights because they been brainwashed into thinking driveways and median cuts are evil.

I tried showing how the new left turns will work.  In our case at 152/35 (and since this is the only movement that matters because it's how us Platte Countians go north on I-35) rather than waiting at two traffic signals to make a northbound left turn, we will only need to travel through one signal which I showed with the darker blue lines.  Folks who are lost exiting south from I-35 and accidentally wind up going towards Liberty will follow the maroon line.  Folks that are going north on I-35 and are making the wise choice to go to KCMO to shop at the better retail choices will follow the yellow lines just like they do today.  Folks escaping Liberty to go south on I-35 will follow the light blue line just like they do today.

Improvements will be done on Kansas east of I-35 over to MO 291 and after the meeting, I'm sure MoDOT will post them to their project website here but since there's no reason to ever go that way, I'm not going to analyze them.   The interchange improvements will remove the northbound (dark blue) green left arrow timing from the signal on the east side which will allow better movement off the highway and across the corridor. 

The nice thing about MoDOT staff being proactive on the socials?  You don't have to attend a meeting with plain old paper boards.  You can preview how the improvements are going to work using their YouTube page.  Honestly, I think this is the best way to understand and visualize the new interchange.

Here are some samples of how the new interchange will look/feel.

The video below is how us Platte Countians will get to Iowa and Minnesota.

Lastly, this is how southward folks that are lost will wind up in Liberty.  They will no longer need to wait at the traffic signal but will be able to make a free yielding left turn off the ramp then wait at the signal on the east side of the highway.

Construction is supposed to start in 2019 and it will be a mess but there is no other way to replace an existing bridge.  Luckily improvements to MO 291/I-35 and the Flintlock Flyover are done to get around while this is underway.  Hopefully they'll be some TV and print media who will do a story with the details as the design progresses throughout the year.