The Line Creek Loudmouth

Waukomis Drive (soon to be Line Creek Parkway) Improvements Progress

For everyone complaining about the heat, you need to know this is perfect road building weather.  It's also supposed to be hot for a while but not hot enough to not vote next Tuesday so in case you missed my primary post this week, you can catch it here.

What a difference a bidding process and contractor make.   The reconstruction of Waukomis near Line Creek Elementary bid the same month as the North Green Hills Road improvements. What's really cool about this job is that the contractor, Radmacher Brothers, innovated out of necessity.  The design called for some large concrete arches for the two branches of Line Creek.  These concrete arches are usually built off site from far away and then trucked to the job site.  However, it's my understanding that the concrete arch makers were super busy so Radmacher decided to build their own arches on the job site.  If this works for them financially, it's a great way to save money and expedite construction and hopefully takes off in the local market.

They had to pour a flat concrete slab to put the forms together.  I had taken some pictures of the larger forms set up but can't find them but the green metal in the picture below are parts of the forms that they bolt together, place reinforcing steel bars inside of it, then pour concrete around it.

This is a picture of a finished one.  I don't remember the dimensions exactly but this has to be around the seventy feet length.

Now these things have to sit on a foundation and the point load from the edge of the arch has to be distributed over a flat concrete slab.  Concrete doesn't do well when it's stressed with tension (getting pulled apart).  It's great when it's in compression (getting squished).  The way concrete gets its tensile strength is steel reinforcing bars.  Now I'm not 100% sure if the picture below is for the footing for the arches or maybe the reinforcing steel they need for a poured retaining wall but either way here is the web of rebar the contractor had to build in order to make sure the concrete does what it's supposed to do.

So the south two thirds of the project is complete.  They are working on the north third and here is the footing for one side of the arches underway.

Now I need to do a post just about the old Kansas City to St. Joseph Interurban concrete arches that were built in 1910ish but they have the arch exposed and ready to demolish.

They've got most of the dirt in place for the roadway improvements and the storm boxes.  This is looking south towards the entrance to Line Creek Community Center.

The project includes a "oval" roundabout that ties NW 62nd Street (entrance to Clayton Meadows) and the entrance the the Line Creek Community Center and Kansas City Northern Railroad.  I didn't see a powerpoint on the ordinance on the clerk.kcmo.gov website but I did have a copy of the aerial map that was used for the public hearing back in 2016.  Keep in mind this project got a federal grant in 2014 and ten years later it's finally under construction.  The final project probably changed but this gives you an idea of the improvements.  North is to the right

The roundabout requires some retaining wall and I went through the site in the end of June and the blocks had just been delivered.  By the end of July, they had the walls built.  This is looking southeast at the retaining wall along the east side of the roundabout and between NW 62nd Street and the Clay-Platte Montessori School

Now south of the roundabout the project is done.  For those of you from the north who only take the road to get to the Price Rite Market and turn around, following are some pictures of the finished product.  By the way, I you haven't gotten anything at Price Rite, you should.  All the food is awesome.  I'd start with the biscuits and gravy then grab a sandwhich for lunch, then finish it off with one of their take and bake pastas.  Oh, I guess I'm hungry and off topic so back to construction.  If you live north and haven't seen the finished project, it's a great parkway.   The narrow culvert crossing which if you drove off of would result in instant death in front of the school is gone (it was something else biking across it in the morning with school traffic).  It has sidewalk and a trail on the east side so kids can walk to school.  This is looking south at the new crossing.  Line Creek Elementary is on the left.

The project did some stream bank stabilization and so now the baseball fields at Vaydik Park aren't in danger of washing away or anyone getting hurt going over the fence to get a ball.  This is looking west at the bank stabilization from the north entrance to the school.  This had to be done to protect the new arch culvert and the road from falling into the creek in the future.

This is looking north from the school bus entrance towards the community center.  So much nicer than the old death trap culvert.

The school now has a nice ten foot wide sidepath trail for kids to safely get to school and for everyone on the east side of the street to safely get to the Line Creek Trail.  This is looking south from the bus entrance.  The school is on the left.

The project also includes a dedicated cross walk to get to the Vaydik Park soccer and baseball fields and also for anyone in the Englewood Apartments to safely walk to school.  This is looking west from NW 56th Terrace.

This project was funded with a $5M federal grant that some of you back in 2014 were nice enough to send support letters and emails to help get the grant.  The rest of the construction money is coming from Platte County's road sales tax even though Kansas City is managing the project.  If you would like to see the improvements continue south of Englewood all the way to Vivion so people can access the Vivion Road and Interurban Trails, you can easily put your name to the online petition I created to help with a Platte County grant that's recently been submitted.  All you need to do is go here and it would be greatly appreciated.

Also Tuesday is election day and it's a big day to vote to show that you back the blue and as always I'm always more than happy to share my recommendations for Governor, Lt. Governor (Go Holly!) and the rest who I think would do a good job leading the state of Missouri. Now since it's Saturday morning, I'm heading out to get some Price Rite biscuits and gravy.

 

Green Hills Road Construction Progress (Or Lack Thereof)

There is a community meeting this Saturday 6/15 at Northland Baptist Church about the Green Hills Road project. 

If you end up going, you will probably meet a really nice guy name Todd.  Todd is newer to KCMO and inherited this project and doesn't deserve to get publicly chastised.  Also your two Councilmembers inherited it too so while you might have gripes with everything, just keep in mind that by having this meeting and a forum to "take it" these folks are doing what normally isn't done for road projects and you should vent but not at them personally.  It's also a way to learn more about when the dang thing will be done.

Green Hills Road was bid in January of 2023.  The ordinance authorizing the construction didn't get to the City Council until April of 2023.  Because of some politics, it got held up and didn't get approved until the end of May.  The KCMO fiscal year ends April 30 and starts May 1.  Why that odd date?  I am guessing it's because people are paying their city earnings taxes in April and so the City's books are flush with cash in May and that cash is used to run the City for a year.

What happens during that time period is the financial system goes into what City Hall terms "year end rollover."  If contracts aren't in process before April, they won't get done before the end of the month and then the money that is allocated in a budget is "frozen" until it "rolls over."  The roll over process can take 3, 4 months and basically even though a project has money sitting there, it can't be spent because it's in a prior fiscal year. 

It was a huge pain in my rear when I was managing projects there and the way I worked around it is I had an awesome department financial officer.  On May 1, I would get money into the newly funded projects that I knew wouldn't be spent in the first part of the fiscal year.  I would have her transfer the money from the new projects into the project account for the old project and then use that money to execute contracts.  When the project money in the old project "rolled over" I would have her transfer it back to the new project.  It's like moving money from checking to savings or HELOC as you need it to keep things going.  Of course it wasn't the way things were done and we'd get a proverbial snootily worded email but we didn't care because we were focused on progress over process.

Anyways, because of "roll over" the contract for Green Hills didn't get signed for a while and I don't think the contractor started working until September.  We essentially lost 12 weeks of hot, dry summer air, started work in the fall, and watched the road sit there closed off with nothing going on because it the ground was frozen or a muddy mess.  As you are reading this I'm sure your muttering to yourself "that's stupid" because it is.

Last week I needed to get something from CVS so I figured I would walk up there and see how things were going.  First off even with the road closed, walking along it was horrible.  Just remember people did that every day while it was open and why rebuilding it with sidewalks was so needed.  Also, the road was built in the 1940's and through some substantial cracks in the pavement, the roadbed was showing signs of catastrophic slope failure because the sides are steep.  This is looking north as a vehicle approaches at the start of some slope failure.

As I got further down to where the Coves dam is located, they've cleared for roadside grading.  Note in this picture the 2-3" pavement dip that was forming because the slope was starting to slide and how there was a cliff at the edge of the road and any vehicle going off it was going to have horrible results.  That slope failure probably would have gotten worse sooner rather than later and the road would have been closed once it slid.

Below is what a section of the east side of the road looks like.  There's only 4 feet then it's a 10+ foot straight vertical drop off. 

One cool thing about this project is it's only going to be a two lane road with sidewalk on the west and 10 foot wide side path on the east which means the rock outcropping on the east side near Line Creek will remain (I think).

The contractor has started on some of the retaining wall on the west side of the project that will be in phase 2 of the project.  This is looking north near that house with the garage right on the road.

This is looking north right south of the box culvert.  Note how the road is narrow with no recovery shoulder and how the new road won't be that much wider.  From the retaining wall, there will be a five foot sidewalk, a five foot greenspace buffer, and then the curb.  This isn't a massive overbuild like North Brighton became.  If it was, the Waukomis/Green Hills corridor would have been an unaffordable project and like North Brighton, it would have never gotten fully finished.

Here is a shot of the western edge of the Line Creek box culvert crossing.  Again, there is no room for error.  Any veer off the pavement would have resulted in a horrible result.  I don't know what the guardrail would have protected.  Maybe someone on a scooter that hit it?

After a half mile into the project, I finally made it to Phase 1.  I think there are 6 or 7 phases total.  This is standing at Line Creek Drive (the entrance to Wau Lin Cree and the landscaping business) looking north. 

This is midway in the first phase halfway between Barry and Line Creek Drive and looking southeast at the retaining wall on the east side of the project.

One of the biggest challenges with this project is the existing 24" water transmission main which serves the KCI Airport and quite a bit of southern Platte County.  It's being replaced with a new 36" main and so space is limited and because of the importance of this water line, it cannot be shut down during the summer because of the water demand in the area.  Since summer of 2023 was lost working on it, the tie didn't happen during that time period and so it's going to be dicey when they will be able to shut off the main and connect the new one in. Hopefully they can schedule it right where they can do the tie in this summer without shutting off water to KCI.

The new waterline has gravel backfill on top of and you can see it in this shot looking south from the entrance to the self storage facility.  Note the white pipes sticking up.  When they build waterlines, they install them then put vertical PVC pipe every 25 or 50 feet.  Those pipes are set on top of the watermain and then after all the dirt work is done, a surveyor does a GPS shot on the pipe to locate it in 2D and a GPS shot on the elevation of the ground at that spot, pulls the pipe out of the ground, and then measures the distance from where the ground intersected the pipe to the end of the pipe on the top of the waterline.  This survey data is then later plotted into a CAD program and an "as-built" drawing is created and put into KC Water's asset management system.  That way someone who might need to replace or fix that watermain in 50 years knows exactly where it is and all the valves, hydrants, and services are located.

Watermains are pressurized and they can move around after they've been built so in order to prevent that "straddle blocks" are built to hold the watermain in place.  Straddle blocks sounds really elaborate but it's simply some rebar and concrete around the waterline.  The bigger the watermain, the bigger the block.  If you happen to live in Wau Lin Cree or drive down to check things out sometime, you should pull to the end of Line Creek Drive and see the monstrous rebar cages that have been built that will be placed around the 36" main as it gets constructed.

Finally I made it to Barry Road where they've got everything rough graded out to rebuild and add some lanes at the traffic signal.  This is looking south from Barry.

Unfortunately there are a lot of preventable things that should have happened to prevent another road construction dumpster fire that have become a hallmark of improvements in this area.  I don't know anything about schedule when Phase 1 will be done or when the other 5+ phases will start and end.  If you want to find out, attend the meeting Saturday and be nice to Todd.

Green Hills Road Almost Ready to Open

Green Hills Road is about done and I took some liberty and drove through the job tonight since I've got a pass.  The project is a classic partnership project.  KCMO put in roughly $1M of bond and sales taxes for the design and property acquisition, Platte County obtained a $2M federal grant and used that plus something like $2.3M of its 3/8th cent road and bridge sales tax to pay for the construction and now we've got a complete street where people don't have to walk or bike in the road with cars driving by at 40+mph in ten foot lanes.

This is looking south from NW 78th Street where the project started.

My 11 year old commented that it was really nice and had a big wide sidewalk which is on the east side of the street and is ten feet wide for bikes and pedestrians.  This is looking south towards the entrance to Silverbrooke and the Russell Jones Education Center.

The next shot is looking north from NW 76th Street and the school entrance.

The next picture is looking south from the eastern entrance to Lake Waukomis towards Platte Brooke Drive.  The project included an extension of the median built in the previous phase.  The purpose of this was to provide some traffic calming and beautification.  Back in 2005 KCMO did a study and the 100+ people that showed up to the public meetings were pretty adamant that they liked the rural and treed feel of the existing road even though it had a high number of accidents and fatalities.  People also came unglued at the idea of a four lane road so the hybrid two and three lane concept was chosen.  I hope those that were around then realized their input mattered.  

The southern portion of the project included milling and overlaying the existing pavement.  The first time we drove through here with the kids after the contractor milled off the top 2" of the road, my 18yo commented that "this road is so horrible, it's like Lightning McQueen built it."

The project included putting sod down and in case you ever wondered how a landscaper puts down sod, it comes in a roll and they use a little skid loader contraption to unroll it.  For those of you not familiar with the area, the nice wall was built by Jon and Dave Barth as part of the Silverbrooke subdivision and the design of the street accommodated it and provides some aesthetic enhancement to the corridor.

Sod also has to be watered and it's not that complicated to do.  All it takes is a big tank, a super soaker on a truck, and some dudes.

The next phase hasn't been bid so enjoy the summer of Green Hills before that next phase starts.  You can also read about the history of the corridor and area from an old post here.  It's also the northern entrance into Miltonwood, a once charming roaring 20's hamlet.

Platte Purchase and Route 152 Interchange Status 10/26/21

Well it's been great construction season this fall with no rain and a long string of sunny days.  I took some pictures of the new diverging diamond interchange under construction at Platte Purchase and Route 152.  This project is being done in anticipation of the new Central Bank Sporting Complex, planned new Platte County R-3 school facilities, and commercial development.  The project will be under construction until the middle of next year but was closed to allow work to accelerate and have the off-ramps open before Thanksgiving.

This picture was taken from the the north side of the interchange and looking south from Platte Purchase at freshly poured and sawed concrete.

I thought the paving machine left an artsy path.  This shows the path for someone going south on Platte Purchase and how they will cross over to the "wrong side" of the road.

The gravel base has all been put in place and compacted.  This is looking southwest at the WB on-ramp which pavement is already completed.  The pipes sticking out of the ground are conduits for the traffic signals which take a while to get on the job site because there's a 4-6 month lead time on ordering and someone fabricating the metal poles.

This is looking east towards the WB off-ramp (ramp for those of you coming from Liberty or 169 to get to that large wholesale club) and the off-ramp pavement work is all done.  The wood stakes you see were placed by a surveyor to help set up a string line which the concrete paver uses to guide the curvature and elevation of the new pavement.

Since this is one of those diverging diamond (DDI) interchanges, this is looking south at the east side of the bridge approach where southbound traffic will be driving on the "wrong" side of the road.  I'll point out that the concrete contractor left the gap in the middle because they have to install steel bars along the concrete joint lines and by doing it this way, they can come in, drill and grout the steel bars in, then use the new pavement as the edge forms.  See the green bars sticking out?  Those are rust inhibiting material covering metal reinforcing bars.

This below is a concrete drill.  I haven't seen one of these in action but the hydraulic drill would drill two bar holes in what seemed like just under a minute.

I also took a shot of the concrete paver.  Basically it's an expensive "Play-Doh" machine that takes the concrete, shakes it up to get the air out of the concrete, and smashes it flat.

I noticed some pink markings on the bridge showing the location of the new concrete barriers that will keep cars on the right side of the road.  See all of the green rebar?  That all goes into making a concrete median barrier.  Ironworkers will grout the rebar into the existing bridge deck and then a concrete machine with a steel template will take the concrete from a concrete truck and slither it into the form.  Concrete is simply heavier "Play Doh" and the physics is the same.

Now I have made it to the south side of the bridge and this is looking south at the southern cross over.

This is looking west at the eastbound off-ramp which has all of the concrete in place.

This is looking east at the eastbound on-ramp.  Again all of the ramp pavement is done.

The project also includes an underpass for the Route 152 Trail.  One of the problems with DDI interchanges is the number of bike/ped crossing points and vehicular conflicts.  They are set up for free-yielding traffic flow which is why they work so well where people are trying to get off and on a freeway.  They are set up for pedestrians continuing on an arterial street.  However, I can't think of DDI's that have been built where bike/ped users are crossing the arterial which is the case here so while the road is all torn up, it made sense to put in an underpass to eliminate any possibility of vehicular accidents on the free yielding merges and also not cause substantial delay in someone pushing a walk button to cross and causing all the cars to have to wait at the stoplights.  The grade of the trail and the interchange being much higher than the surrounding ground worked well in this case.

I also saw an operator using a remote controlled dirt compactor.  A big problem in civil construction is settlement and it's always hard to get compaction of the soil placed to where it doesn't settle the pavement.  This is common right before bridges or over cross road pipes where the dirt isn't compacted to the right density and dips in the road develop.  Using a remote controlled compactor eliminates the chance of the operator getting squeezed and hurt or killed if the compactor happened to trap him/her against something immovable like a concrete box culvert.

This is a joint partnership project between Kansas City and MoDOT and I know it's hard to see progress from Route 152 or Platte Purchase so I just wanted to share what the project is looking like.  It will be nice when it's done.

 

Maplewoods Parkway Groundbreaking

Sometimes I forget things I post on this site and probably should follow up every so often.  This is one of those cases.  If you've been reading for a while, you might remember back in 2016 a lot of you commented when KCMO applied for a federal grant to rebuild and improve North Woodland. 

Thanks to some crafty grant writing and overcoming some things unmentioned, in August/September of 2016 KCMO received a $6M federal grant towards construction and had a public meeting prior to securing right of way back in 2017.

Well all the easements necessary for the road were secured, all the federal red tape was satisfied, and less than three years after receiving federal funds, the Kansas City Missouri Parks and Recreation Department has bid and awarded a contract to rebuild the corridor and will be breaking ground next Tuesday July 30, 2019 at 10AM. 

The official big brother social media invite is here so you can add it to your calendar and share the event. 

Join us! Tuesday, July 30 at 10am #KCParks #goKC More>>https://t.co/45XRY2n75P @KCNorthlandInfo @NorthlandNewsCC

— KCMO Parks and Rec (@KCMOParks) July 25, 2019

In case you missed the meetings or other posts, North Woodland from 96th Street up to Shoal Creek Parkway will be rebuilt as a two lane parkway with on-street bike lanes, curbs, streetlights, a sidepath trail on the east side, and a sidewalk on the other. 

The project will also include roundabouts at 96th Street, 100th Street, 106th Street, and Shoal Creek Parkway to eliminate the traffic stoppages caused by the 4 way stops.  Here are some excerpts from the public meeting display.  I'm sure some things changed as the design was finalized but it should give you a general idea of what the final project will look like. North is the right and west is to the top of the pictures.  This one is from 96th Street at the left roundabout and 100th Street at the right roundabout.

Next one has the 100th Street roundabout on the left and the overhead power lines/station/Staley golf maintenance shed on the right.

Next one continues with the the overhead power lines/station/Staley golf maintenance shed on the left and the 106th Street peanut about on the right.

Last one has the 106th Street peanut about on the left and the Shoal Creek Parkway roundabout and end of the project on the right.

Why roundabouts?  Simple, the roundabouts are more efficient than 4 way stop and signalized intersections.  One has to just go one mile west and look at how overbuilt the North Oak and Shoal Creek Parkway is.  Signals create inefficiency which create the need to widen to four lanes.  Rather than overbuild the project in three phases, over half the corridor can be rebuilt as a safe road.  Think of North Brighton north of Vivion Road which is 5 lanes and then turns right back into an unimproved 2 lane farm road right in front of Ravenwood Elementary.  That project was done back in 2010 or so and almost ten years later the next phase is about to begin because 5 lane roads are extremely expensive.  Ask yourself if you'd want to wait another twenty years to fix the unsafe corridor or would rather have a safe two lane parkway.

One day when one of the kids had a practice at Happy Rock Park, I took my bike and rode the Shoal Creek Trail up to Barry Road then took Maplewoods Parkway up to 96th Street.  I then continued up to about 106th Street where I turned around.  I've ridden my bike on Route 9 through the 635 and 169 interchanges, Broadway through Penn Valley Park, 47th Street in the Plaza, and Front Street in the Northeast Industrial District and let me just say that North Woodland was by far the street I felt most likely to die on.

There is no semblance of a shoulder and it's an instant drop off at the side of the pavement.  The pavement is trash because it's a gravel road that just had some asphalt slapped on it over the years.

The hills hinder sight lines so it's hard to see a car let alone a walker or bicyclist.  I had the pleasure of taking the ditch when two big trucks went by.

The project manager for the Parks Department that did this job worked his tail off and gets all the credit for it.  I'd name him but he'd chew me out because he's extremely humble.  If you live in the area, check out the groundbreaking and thank him for leading a positive team that was focused on getting the road rebuilt and getting it rebuilt as soon as possible.

I'm not sure of the phases and which portion will start first but if I were you, I'd follow KC Parks on social media here, here, here, and here to stay up to date on things all over KCMO.  You might also need to remind me to do some follow up posts as construction happens.

Line Creek Parkway Extension Starting This Summer

If you've been up along the north end of Line Creek Parkway or along North Platte Purchase north of 152, you may notice that there's some tree clearing that's underway.  That work is being done for extending Line Creek Parkway north of Old Stagecoach Road, widen Platte Purchase Drive, and connect the two roads.  Here is an overall schematic map from a presentation to the KCMO Park Board.  It just shows what might happen in the area and is used more as a map that gives anyone looking to invest an area what might happen.  The land use would still need to go through the zoning/entitlement process before anyone starts building anything.

The next map shows what will be built this upcoming summer and some lane configurations along with water and sewer lines.  Again, this was from a board presentation last year so final details will change but it gives an idea of the street layout.

The parkway landscaping and typical sections look something like this.

The project is being funded through the Platte Purchase Redevelopment District which using new taxes off the Costco^TM to pay for improvements.  One thing to note, the street improvements will include an extension of the Line/Second Creek Trail system along the north and west side of Line Creek Parkway.  If you didn't realize it, the Line Creek Trail officially ends at the Route 152 Trail.  The trail along the parkway to the north is technically the Second Creek Trail

What's not shown on these exhibits is the first phase of the Second Creek Trail that will be built in 2020 independent of a street that will veer towards the northwest and follow Second Creek and connect at some point into the Genesis subdivision.  By the way, this wouldn't be possible without a great company like Arvest Bank^TM and Ashlar Homes^TM dedicating easements at no cost to the taxpayer to build the trail.  If you are in the market for a new house, check out the Communities of Green Hills because you'll be connected to this kick butt trail system.  Unlike corporations I've previously noted, these businesses support trails with granting of no cost easements.

The neat thing about Second Creek is that it's a lot different than Line Creek and the floodplain gets wide fast so it's got some wide open valleys and amazing natural diversity.  Here's a preview.

 

 

It's going to be a fun trail to build and connect up to Platte Purchase Park someday.

Old Tiffany Springs Road Bridge Progress April 2019

If you haven't been to Chuck E. Cheese^TM or north of 152 on I-29 lately, it's changing.  The new Old Tiffany Springs Road Bridge over I-29 is going gangbusters.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, the old narrow two lane farm bridge that used to serve the lost city of Tarrytown is being replaced on alignment with a new four lane bridge that completes the arterial grid around the I-29/152 cloverleaf.  Even though it's a state interstate bridge, it's being paid for by federal funds obtained by KCMO and funds from the KCI Corridor TIF.

The project will also add sidewalks and finish a huge gap in the Route 152 Trail and make that a continuous corridor from North Amity to US 169 (see this 152 Trail post for better explanation).  If you're feeling a need for a life threatening rush and can't afford sky diving, try riding your bike over the bridge with its 30" or so concrete railing and steady flow of cars like this.

 

The project will also include an underpass for the future KCI Corridor Trail along the east side of I-29 and the underpass is in place.  Underpasses are more than pedestrian only HAWK signals but don't have the threat of a car going 45mph hitting a child or family crossing the street nor does it impede traffic flow by making cars stop.  This picture is looking north and shows the amount of dirt needing to be brought in and the bridge abutment and retaining wall partially complete on the left.

In the picture above, you can see the construction crane and what looks like a red steel truss or 3D ladder.  That red contraption is the hammer for the steel piles that are necessary to build the bridge support. 

Basically bridges are supported by "abutments" which are platforms for the bridge beams to sit on.  The weight of the bridge and vehicles on it is transferred to the top of the abutment.  However, the abutments alone can't support the load.  In this case steel piles are driven into the ground until they hit a solid bedrock surface so that there is no settlement of the bridge. 

Some of the time bedrock is not always available and so the steel piles are driven into the soil until the pile can no longer be driven.  These steel piles act like nails and the friction between the soil and the steel pile provide enough resistance to support the bridge.  I tried finding something on the internet that showed it but couldn't find what I wanted so I drew up a back of the letter illustration of how loads are transferred from the piles and support the bridge.

How does the pile hammer work?  Something like this video I captured for the Shoal Creek Trail bridge behind Maplewoods Community College.  

Every time that hammer hits the steel pile, it's called a "blow."  Piles are marked with chalk in one foot intervals to show the depth and rate at which the steel pile is being driven into the ground.  Somewhere some program or engineer does all sorts of calculations that calculate the number blows per one foot which the steel pile will meet resistance ie when the hammer hits the pile 42 times and it goes one foot deep, the hammer can stop pounding. 

However from my observation is the pile gets driven and driven until a distinctive "ping" sound starts and the hammer pounds a few times without any movement into the ground at all.  Piles are steel H-beams and are usually very long in this area as shown below.

Once the piles are driven, earth or usually rock is backfilled and compacted.  This is looking west from the east side of I-29 at driven piles.  These will be marked at the right elevation and a cutting torch will cut them to a uniform level.

A reinforcing steel basket will be placed around the piles and then the concrete abutment poured.  I don't have a picture of that frame because the contractor hadn't started work on it yet but you can imagine it from the picture below.

The bridge crosses both I-29 and Prairie View Road so it has three spans and two "intermediate bents" or piers.  This is the pier on the west side of I-29 and it shows the formwork.  I really wish I had a picture of the wire frame because it's rather impressive.

The project will raise Old Tiffany Springs Road just north of Chuck E. Cheese^TM to the same level as the parking lot to the south and will require a lot of dirt.  This is looking east towards Skyview and all of that will be filled in with dirt.

The new road west of I-29 requires a lot of dirt and retaining wall which is going up quickly.  This picture was taken a week ago and looking west over I-29 at the new road just south of Honda of Tiffany Springs^TM.  

Notice the hanging equipment from the crane way in the air and wonder why that's a common construction site sight?  Theft prevention.  It's hard to steal a pump or generator when it's 50+ feet in the air.

The project looks even more impressive when over on North Congress looking to the east.

One thing about concrete is that it is really strong when it is compressed or crunched.  It is not strong at all when it is in tension or stretched so those round columns in the center need steel within the concrete to provide strength against stretching.  Here is how much steel and how it has to be tied all together like Tinker Toys^TM.  

Vertical concrete columns may appear to be compressed but the weight of the load actually creates tension on the outside of the column.  The reinforcing steel cages provide tension support and create the strength to support the bridge loading.  I tried another back of the napkin sketch trying to illustrate how it works.  If a column doesn't have that steel reinforcement, the column will "shear" at a 45 or so degree angle.

The grading on the west side of I-29 is coming along and the storm inlets and pipes appear to be in place.  This is looking east towards I-29.

Did you know that construction grading is quasi-automated?  Some contractors use computer aided drafting and modeling software to create 3D models which are then uploaded into a GPS type system.  These models are used to guide the operators on where and how much to dig of fill.  This is a GPS type system attached to the blade of a bulldozer.  The operator has something in the cab that tells him/her how much to lower or raise the blade to get to the right elevation.

The retaining wall for the project is a mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) wall (us engineers are great with acronyms that make sense to only us.)  The wall will be these narrow MSE panels interlocked together and then held up using friction created by gravity from the "backfill" material on a vertical tie.  In this case, the backfill material is rock and I'm running out of envelopes.

This is looking east along the north side of the new road and shows wall panels without the tie backs.  It also shows some black "filter fabric" between the rock and the dirt.  The filter fabric is supposed to keep the "fines" or small dirt/clay particles from eroding into the rock and causing water to saturate right behind the wall.  Water is bad in these situations because it weighs a lot and adds unnecessary stress to the wall face.  The principle is very similar to the "soil nail wall" installation I explained in 2012.

Here's a ten year old with angst that he was hauled out onto another construction site and a six year old who was super excited for perspective on how big these panels are.

Here's a shot of a tie back buried into the gravel and how it's held onto the MSE wall face.  You might also be wondering why some of the steel is green and some is not.  The green is a coating that is supposed to keep water off the steel and prevent corrosion/rust.

Now bridge designers have other tools in their toolbox and on this one, they used another type of bridge abutment support......the drilled shaft.  Rather than hammer steel H-piles into the ground, a drill digs out soil to a solid foundation like bedrock and then the shaft is filled with concrete.  I'm tired and it's late so geek out on drilled shafts here.  Drilled shafts will hold up the west side of the bridge.

Why would this be different than the other side?  Well the west side is 15 or so feet in the air from the existing ground so there's no way to drive pile and use the dirt to hold it in place I'm assuming.  In this case, round metal culvert pipes are placed after the drilling is done and will be filled with concrete.  That's why you see the shiny tubes in this picture.  To the left of the concrete panels right where I am standing is a 10+ foot drop.  

The boys had fund dropping rocks into the drilled shaft tubes and then listening for water.  They didn't believe me when I said it was 30+ feet deep but once I dropped a rock to show how I knew what I was talking about, they had about five minutes of fun listening for the splash at the bottom of the tubes. 

As we were wrapping up, the six year old loudly pointed out the porta-potty in the median and I had to explain that the crane operator and anyone in the middle of the interstate just couldn't find a non-conspicuous place to take a whiz.  The crane is in the middle of the interstate to drive the pile for the middle pier and there is a lane closed each way on I-29 so you might hit some stop and go traffic getting to KCI.

KCMO has a project website for official information which you can find here.  Work should progress pretty quickly once the piers are in place and they place the bridge beams and hopefully it's all done and ready for Black Friday because we all know we want to make sure Zona Rosa is easily accessible for Christmas shopping...…. 

Pleasant Valley Road Improvements

One key thing about transportation improvements nowadays is that partnerships are the key to getting things done.  The latest case in point are the improvements underway to Pleasant Valley Road between Antioch and North Brighton.  The old windy farm road is getting a major makeover and realignment as shown in the exhibit below.  It’s a joint KCMO/Gladstone project mostly funded with federal transportation funds.

Construction has been underway sometime now and it looks like a lot of progress has been made even with this cold winter.  It looks like the storm inlets and pipes are in and the contractor is getting close to being ready to pave the part on Antioch south of NE 68^th Terrace.  This is looking south from the big water tower at NE 68^th Terrace where the improvements start.

Rough grade has been cut and it looks like the survey stakes for setting up the curb string line for the paving machines have been placed.  This is looking south on Antioch just south of the Randall Court Apartments.

The project will include what I think is Gladstone’s first roundabout.  It’s a single lane roundabout which I think are great because traffic always flows and it helps keep speeds down in residential areas.  It’s also simple to drive because it’s only one lane so all one must do is pull up, slow down, look to the left, wait, and go once it’s clear.  This is looking south from Antioch as one would approach the roundabout.

Since it’s Gladstone’s first roundabout, they are putting a little civic pride into it.  This is looking southeast at the Antioch approach into the roundabout.

This is looking southwest from the western Pleasant Valley Road approach into the roundabout.  This is what you will see if you are coming from North Brighton and heading towards Route 1.

It appears a lot of work still needs to be done on Antioch south of the roundabout along the cemetery but I am assuming that is because the old road cannot be closed and needs to be kept open until this new construction is usable.  The Saturday I was out here taking pictures there was a service going on and cars were streaming along it.  Work is still being done however.  This is looking north along Antioch towards the roundabout and shows the grading along the existing pavement.

Most of the work on the eastern leg is done and is open to traffic.  This is looking east from the roundabout towards North Brighton.

This is the open section looking west from North Brighton.

When it’s done, the project will have a ten foot trail on the south side and a trail along old North Jackson pavement and connect to Carriage Hills.  Hopefully someday it will reach over to Pleasant Valley Park and the Shoal Creek Trail if Pleasant Valley Road ever gets improved east of Brighton over to Searcy Creek Parkway.

There is some neat history in the area which maybe someday I might get around to posting about.  I missed the chance this winter to try and find the old town of Acme Springs.  The area has quite a bit of early settler archaeology history and there was a rather substantial freed slave community in the area.  Fortunately, the Atkins-Johnson Farm folks and the City of Gladstone have done a lot of work and have extensive flyers on the Atkins and Johnson Family, the Big Shoal Cemetery, and Clay County History that you can read.  I love getting my City of Gladstone history flyer with my Parks and Recreation sign up guide in the mail.  They put a lot of time and effort into including history of the area.

 

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.

Maplewoods (North Woodland) and Bike Plan Meetings Tomorrow Night

Well I'm back to one handed blogging so sorry for the last minute notice but there are two public meetings tonight you might be interested in.  First one deals with the update to the bike plan.  In case you are wondering what I am talking about, check out my previous post on the topic and check out the Bike KC update page and share with your friends.  The meeting is at Northland Cathedral at US 169 and Tiffany Springs Parkway. 

Click this link to add it to your evil big brother internet search company calendar.

The second is the design public hearing for improvements to North Woodland aka Maplewoods Parkway. 

It's been a little over a year since KCMO applied for federal funds to help with rebuilding the corridor and KCMO was successful in securing $6M which will be combined with the recently passed GO Bond package to rebuild the unimproved two lane road to Maplewoods Parkway from NE 96th Street to Shoal Creek Parkway.  Here's the official notice:

NOTICE OF PUBLIC

INFORMATION MEETING

ON THE

DESIGN OF WOODLAND AVENUE

COMPLETE STREETS PROJECT

(MAPLEWOODS PARKWAY)

Notice is hereby given to all interested persons that a public meeting will be held at the Staley High School, 2800 NE Shoal Creek Parkway, Kansas City, MO 64156, on Tuesday, October 17th, 2017 from 5 to 7 PM.  Handicap access is available.  This is an open house public meeting and residents can come as their schedule allows.  There will not be a formal presentation.

All interested persons will have an opportunity to be heard on their views of the proposed improvements with reference to socio-economic effects and its consistency with the community’s objectives.  The planned improvement is as follows:

The City of Kansas City, Missouri Parks and Recreation Department plans to reconstruct  N. Woodland Avenue from NE 96^th Street to NE 108^th Street, upgrading this section of roadway to current design Standards.  The improvements include roadway Realignment and Widening with a Median, Curb & Gutter, Sidewalks, multi-use Path, Bike Lanes, Lighting and Sewers.  Design and Right of Way plans will be available for viewing at the Meeting.  Tentative schedules for right-of-way acquisition and construction will be discussed at the Meeting.

roject plans and other detailed information prepared by the City are available for public inspection at the office of the Project Manager, Parks and Recreation Department, 4600 E. 63^rd Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64130.  Written and oral statements will be received at the Meeting.  These, as well as written statements received within ten days after the Meeting date, will be made part of the Public Meeting transcript.  Comments can also be sent via email at [email protected]

If you are limited in mobility and require special services at the Meeting, please notify James Wang by October 10, 2017 at (816) 513-7622 to make arrangements.

City of Kansas City, Missouri

Parks and Recreation Department

By:  James Wang, Project Manager

If you can't make it, I'm sure someone on the socials or internet will get you a link to the material presented.  The meeting is an open house, come as you can meeting from 5-7 so no need to get there right at 5 nor get nervous standing at a podium asking questions like this guy.....

Clip credit to Carsey-Werner Productions from That 70's Show.

Last Day for Public Comments for Green Hills and Woodland

You have one thing to do today before 5PM! 

Leave a positive comment supporting rebuilding Green Hills and North Woodland as safe streets with sidewalks and curbs. 

These aren't needless road widening projects but are two of the most unforgiving and dangerous roads north of the river and without federal funds, it will be a long time before they ever get improved.

Leave a comment for North Woodland here.

Leave a comment for Green Hills Road here.

 

Want Woodland Improved? Leave a Comment

First off, if you want to keep up to speed on things in the Clay County portion of KCMO, you need to follow Councilwoman Heather Hall and Mayor Pro-tem Scott Wagner's social media pages here and here.

Mayor Pro-tem Wagner posted a blurb today about the KCMO effort to seek federal funds to improve Woodland north of 96th Street.

For those of you on the coalition to improve Woodland FB page, there are over 1600 followers of that page.  If one out of five left a comment, that would be roughly 320 comments.  Last funding round, no projects reached 100 comments.  While comments aren't going to sway things one way or the other, it does provide feedback that this is a needed improvement.  The project is competing with other projects all of the metro and some projects like studies, planning, or bus replacement that will only last a few years.  A bunch of you came through with support letters when the grant was submitted so thank you for taking the time to do that.  This project is one of the top priorities of the Northland Chamber so members of that group, please take the time to support this needed improvement.

Here's the conceptual plan overlaid on aerial.  The proposed roundabouts are single lane and are much better than keeping the four way stops or traffic signals.

Please take the time to leave a positive comment right now please by clicking the link to the grant application.

 

Another Federal Grant Opportunity Coming Up

I don't know if I ever found the time to ever thank all of you that submitted support letters and made emails the last time the KC region had a federal funding grant competition through the Mid-America Regional Council.  Because of some key items:

Platte County's 3/8th cent road and bridge sales tax

Platte County's 1/2 cent parks and stormwater tax

Riverside and KCMO's public improvements sales tax

Contributions from the Kinsley Developer along Englewood and the KCI Corridor TIF

By bundling a lot of these funds and forming partnerships between governmental agencies, in 2014, roughly $16M of an available $55M of federal surface transportation funds and roughly $3M of an available $8M of federal transportation alternative funds are going to projects in Platte County.  All the different governments in the metro area submitted grant applications totaling over $250M so walking out with a third of the money was amazing.

Here are some maps of all the successful projects from 2014.  The cool thing about these projects is that none of them are unnecessary four lane widening of streets but rather rebuilding the streets to add curbs, sidewalks, street lights, etc rather than spending a ton of money on asphalt and tearing up folks front or back yards. 

I did post something about the trail projects in more detail here.

Projects like replacing and realigning the Old Tiffany Springs Road bridge over I-29 (the Chuck E Cheese^TM bridge).

The I-29 and 64th Street interchange.

NW 72nd Street from I-29 east over to Overland Drive.

Englewood Road west of US 169.

Lastly, I don't have a picture for it because the project footprint is still being decided, but improvements to Waukomis Drive from Englewood north to the culvert at the north end of Frank Vaydik (Line Creek) Park.  What is cool about this project is it's a free one.  How is it a free one?  All of these federal projects require a local investment or match.  The federal highway bill doesn't give out 100% funding.  It requires local governments to have some skin in the game.

Platte County planned on funding the improvements to NW 72nd Street out of the 3/8th cent county road tax but decided to partner with KCMO, Platte Woods, and Lake Waukomis to apply for federal funds for that project.  They were successful and received a $2.5M federal grant which freed up $2.5M of county tax which could be used for something else.  Anticipating that, Platte County also applied for and received a $5M federal grant for the Waukomis improvements.  They plan on using the $2.5M freed up from NW 72nd Street to match that $5M.  It's like buying one road and getting one free.  Roughly $3.5M of County 3/8th cent sales tax has brought in $7.5M of federal funds that could have gone somewhere else.  I'd call that a pretty efficient use of County tax dollars.

The last grant round was incredibly cutthroat and political.  I can't say enough thanks to Greg Sager who's the Platte County Public Works Director and both Commissioners Beverlee Roper and Duane Soper were heavily involved during multiple meetings and working with KCMO to secure funds for these improvements along with Mayor John Smedley of Platte Woods.  Without these folks exhibiting leadership at the County level, I don't know if all of this would be happening.  It pays to have people in elected positions who understand how the game is played to make sure tax dollars stay local.

It's been two years already and another grant round is upon us.  If any of you readers would like to send a letter of support in for improving Green Hills Road south of Barry or improving North Woodland from 96th to Shoal Creek Parkway, send me an email and I will get you the details.

 

Green Hills Road Getting Close 10/14/15

Well I didn't get too many good pictures because sun had set and I'm going to get in trouble because I drove the nice van through the dirt.....

All the asphalt paving on Green Hills Road is done.  This is the tie in on the west side of Old Tiffany Springs Road.

This is looking north at the roundabout towards Green Hills Road.  Traffic signs are up.

This is looking east from the roundabout.

The red concrete was still fresh and the white paint on the road is the guide for the permanent lane striping that should go down in the next few days.

We'll have to wait and see how things progress the rest of the week. 

Green Hills Road Progress 9/15/15

Despite the 4-5" of rain we got over the weekend, paving on Green Hills Road was able to happen this past Saturday and today.  The contractor has the base pavement down for all of the road south of the Old Tiffany Springs Road roundabout.  This is looking north near Route 152.

All of the outside curb is in place and they were able to get down the first (of two) layers of base asphalt for part of the roundabout.  This is looking north at the roundabout.

The eastern part of Old Tiffany Springs Road has the first lift of base asphalt down and also stringlines set for pouring the concrete curbs.  This is looking east from the roundabout.

It looks like the paving contractor is doing the outside of the roundabout and will pave the inside in a radial fashion.  It looks kind of funny and this is looking southeast at the roundabout.

This is looking north from the roundabout at Green Hills Road.

Hopefully they will finish the rest of the first five inches of base asphalt tomorrow.  Once that it is in, it doesn't matter if it rains because the contractor will have a solid surface to pour curb and the other lift of base asphalt.

In case you were wondering how asphalt pavement is made and winds up here, I found this simple video describing how an asphalt plant works.

(All clip credits to the respective posters)

 

Here is a 3D computer animation that tries to show how it works.

 

Asphalt comes in different styles or grades.  The top surface has smaller rocks and more sand to provide a smoother surface.  The under layer is often coarser with larger rocks and little sand as shown in this picture from the NW 72nd Street project from a few years ago.  Note how "rice crispy" the asphalt is because of the larger rock.

Major streets require eleven or twelve inches of asphalt.  Asphalt is trucked from the asphalt plant and then dumped in the asphalt paver which is a large machine which places the asphalt at the required slope and thickness as shown below.

 

After the asphalt has been placed, a vibratory roller will compress the pavement before it cools which makes the pavement more dense and stable for future traffic.  Asphalt is placed in layers or "lifts" which are usually two to six inches.  The reason for this is that if the "lift" is too thick, the asphalt cannot be properly compacted by the vibratory roller as shown below.  Without that compaction, an asphalt road would just be an oily, squishy mess.

 

One method of speeding things up and to also provide a better base for the curb is for the first lift of asphalt to be installed underneath the curb which is what is being done on Green Hills.  This provides a flat base for a curb machine to "slip form" the curb.  Slip forming a curb basically means that the curb is placed without any wood or metal forms. 

It's extremely faster and more efficient than having a bunch of laborers place and remove forms.  The curb paving machine shown below uses the string line as a guide and, in the case of NW 72nd Street shown below where the guy running the asphalt paving machine put a little too much down, mills out the asphalt to the right elevation so that the curb and final road surface is at the right straight level.

This machine takes the concrete from the concrete truck and magically transforms it into a curb.

The curb is then smoothed with a broom and hardens over the next seven days.  I think the crew that did the curbs on NW 72nd Street finished the mile of curb in two days.

It appears that there still is a lot of work to do with the sidewalks, street lights, and street signs but there will be some visible progress the rest of the week.  It looks like it might not rain until Friday which would allow a few solid days of work this week.

Asphalt On Green Hills Road

First day of school.  First high school football scrimmage to referee tomorrow and so I just dug my luggage out to make sure I have my uniform ready (I almost forgot my hat).  First blog post in like a month.....

We have the first five inches of asphalt base down today on Green Hills Road.  When I took these pictures at six tonight, the asphalt was still to hot to touch (asphalt leaves the plant at 300 or so degrees).  This is looking north from near 152.

The roundabout and Old Tiffany Springs road are graded out and ready for pavement also.  This is looking east at the roundabout.

This is looking south in the roundabout towards 152.

This is looking north from the roundabout.

The curb paving machine is on site.  Someday I will have to explain in detail how this contracption works but it paves the curb on top of the asphalt.  The asphalt provides a solid base for the curb so it lasts longer and also allows the contractor to put the curb done after rain stops vs having to wait three to four days for the ground to dry out.

After the bottom five inches of base asphalt is done on the project, the curbing will be completed, then another four inches of base asphalt will be put down, and then the final two inches of smoother surface asphalt will go in and paving will be done. 

Proposed Englewood Road Improvements

I had a weird feeling today.  I wondered for some reason what would happen if I ever was part of a public hearing and no one showed up.  Usually at public meetings, folks start showing up 15 minutes before advertised time even if it is an open house format meeting where there is no formal presentation.  I don't know if people are on vacation or if it is just too hot to leave the house, but tonight no one showed up till after the scheduled start time so I was kind of freaking out that notices didn't go out or people went to the wrong school.  Luckily around 50 folks eventually attended over the course of the evening.

Before we get too far into this, KCMO has created a new open data website here where you can search for all sorts of stuff like traffic counts or budget items.  This is a great way to share information about capital projects for people who haven't signed up for KCMO news.

Back to the issue of the night.  The preliminary design of the Englewood Road complete street upgrade west of US 169 is available for review.  Here is what the improved US 169 interchange will look like.

Here is a snapshot of the improvements in front of West Englewood Elementary.  Dark gray is pavement, light gray is sidewalk and the ten foot wide sidepath on the north side, green is grass area that is flat, and brown is grass area that is sloped.

This is what the west end of the project at Waukomis will look like.

You can download the whole 30MB design display here.

One thing pointed out tonight that should have been defined better is what is a "BMP."  "BMP" stands for best management practice.  It's a rather lame term but what it identifies is a storm water system that is designed to provide a place for rainwater to infiltrate before discharging into streams.  The intent is to provide a filter let some rainwater soak into the ground and infiltrate.  This lady explains how these work better than I can. 

Stormwater Bump-out: How Does it Work? from GreenTreks Network on Vimeo.

Recently some of these were installed along Penn Valley Drive (Broadway) between I-35 and 31st Street.

The landscaping concept will look something like this.  The first picture is looking at the stretch of road from the west end.  The road in the picture is Ames which is the main entrance to Oakwood Forest.

The second picture is looking at the stretch of road near West Englewood Elementary.  School entrance is to the right.

The roundabout at Waukomis Drive and Englewood Road will be something like this.

Download the whole 10MB landscaping exhibits here.

There also was a fact sheet with some more information which can be downloaded here.

I want to thank everyone who showed up tonight.  I know that this is a busy time of the year.  I also can't say thank you enough to Principal Tammy Eldridge and the staff at West Englewood.  They were gracious hosts for the evening and I appreciate the North Kansas City School District being a partner in this improvement.

What a Difference a Day Makes on Green Hills Road

What a difference a day makes.  The Green Hills Road contractor didn't waste any time getting equipment back to the job.

When I pulled up after 8 tonight, two KCP&L trucks were leaving the job.  The poles are almost gone.  The road contractor worked the ground to get it to air out.  This is looking north from the pavement end near Route 152.

Even though it hasn't rained in a few days, since it's all clay soil, water is still sitting and I had to keep my eye open to make sure I didn't get stuck in some mud covered with a dry crust.  This is looking south towards Route 152.  That gray conduit on the right is for the traffic signal that will be installed to serve the new Menards™.

The string line stakes are in on the west side.  However, this is just to put the stakes in.  This is what a string line that hasn't been set looks like.  If you ever explore a construction site, never ever mess with the string line stakes.  It will do nothing but cause delay and slow down finishing a project.

The stringline is ready to go in part of the median.  It has the 1" by 1" hub with elevations set on the stake.

The contractor worked the dirt to get Old Tiffany Springs Road east of Green Hills dried out also and the surveyor has set the stakes but hasn't set the elevations yet.

If these pop up thunderstorms hold off tomorrow, I hope to get out for some more pictures of progress tomorrow.  When I was going through pictures for this job I came across one which shows the original rock road bed from when the road was first surfaced probably 60+ years ago.  Most early roads were "Macadam" style and the larger rock below would have been one of the lower layers.  You can read more about these first generation roads here.

 

Green Hills Road "Progress"

Ladies and gentlemen...my kids think I'm weird.  Last week I exited from Route 152 at Green Hills like we always do and let out with a "heck yes" at the top of my lungs when I saw this:

Why would I do that?  BECAUSE THE WIRES ARE GONE FROM THE POWER POLES which means KCP&L is almost done with their relocations so the road construction can begin again.

This is standing at Old Tiffany Springs and Green Hills where the roundabout will be and looking south.  Rough grading is done along with what appears to be most of the storm inlets and pipes.

This is looking back east at the grading on Old Tiffany Springs Road.

The stringline survey stakes have been placed and the gray conduit is for the street lights which will be in the median of the street.

I will double back this weekend when I go for another bike ride and see where things stand.  I did notice that I wasn't the only one celebrating....

 

 

Green Hills Road Closed Day 60+/-

Even with all the rain, improvements to Green Hills Road appear to be progressing.  It looks like the storm boxes are in place and the contractor has survey stakes set up for paving.  This stake is set back four feet from the back of the future curb and they need to cut 0.39ft from the top of the hub stake (which isn't shown in the picture).

However before paving happens, there is a "minor" problem.  Can you guess what it is?

This picture below is looking south.  The depressed area is where the asphalt will go.  The higher, black dirt area is where the sidewalk will go. 

Looking east from "The pavement formerly known as Old Tiffany Springs Road."

Looking northeast at Green Hills over the low lying, farm/pasture line Second Creek Valley (and home to the future Second Creek Trail).

Looking south from the intersection of Green Hills/OTSR (note the really tall weeds with cords on them).

I don't have anything else to add.  The sun was at that point where pictures start to suffer in quality and I had a baby waking up so I had to hurry home.

 

Avoid I-29 Tomorrow (or Today) and For Sure Monday

Well, the first week of I-29 construction suck got off to a bad start but people got used to it or used other routes and traffic has been flowing on the way into downtown in the morning.  At night, I have avoided it by using Waukomis/Green Hills but I noticed tonight on my way down to Riverside that going north was bad.

With any traffic closures or lane changes, the first few days are bad because people are unsure,  apprehensive, and confused about where to be.  Things get better and people adjust and the delays are so bad. It worked fine this morning on my way in at 7:30.

Well it appears that things are going to change tomorrow (or right now tonight) and some of the bridges require cross-overs in order to do the maintenance repairs.

All this means is that come Monday after the weekend, expect a slow start with people adjusting to driving on the other side of the road with really narrow lanes and no shoulders.

I took some awesome pictures with my 2MP flip phone tonight (shaddup) starting at Barry Road going north.  People going south towards downtown will be shifted over to the northbound bridge.

At Tiffany Springs Parkway it looks like there will be a shift but I'm not sure if they will need a cross-over here or not.  It's north of Barry Road so it really doesn't matter right?

Now these are southbound at Barry Road.

 

 

Green Hills Road Progress

This is what Green Hills Road looked like on Monday the 20th.  A bunch of storm boxes sitting along side the remnants of the old roadbed.

Not much dirt had been moved into final place.

What a difference a week makes.  After yesterday's post, I couldn't wait to take some pictures of Green Hills Road construction progress.  That and a couple of the older kids were acting up at the YMCA Challenger Park and I decided the best way to punish them was to drag them through a construction site.  This is looking north from 152.  Note the pesky power poles still in the way but the road is close to finish grade (ie ready for finishing for the pavement).

A good deal of the storm inlets that were sitting on the ground have been put in place.  Storm pipes and inlets take the most time to install and progress isn't really visible.  That's why a lot of people get frustrated with a road closure at the start because it's hard to see the contractor getting anything done when they are burying things.   From my observations, it takes about 4 hours to install a simple inlet.  It takes a lot more when tying into existing pipes or working around buried utilities like gas and phone lines.  The inlets below are deep so these are the bases.  Risers will be placed on top of them to bring the structure up to the street level.  It's kind of like building with blocks.

This is what they look like when done.  This inlet is somewhere around eight feet deep.

This is the middle of the job looking north.  Note the west side of the road is ready for finish grading and the inlets are in but the east side still has those pesky power poles in the way.

Here is an inlet with some pesky phone/cable lines in the way.  That's actually some pretty good equipment operators and laborers to install that with those lines that close.

The kids punishment (and whining) ended when they saw a rock pile.

 This is a view south from the middle of the project.

 This is the west side of the street.  The contractor has placed the topsoil.  The sidewalk will be put in here when the pavement is done.

How does the contractor know where all the storm inlets go and how deep to dig?  With simple surveying stakes.  A surveyor takes the plans and then places a "hub" which is a 1" by 1" stake in the ground then measures the elevation of that hub.  They then place a lathe with notes on it referring to the hub and letting the equipment operator know how deep to dig. 

In this case, the hub is 30 feet offset from the center of the storm inlet.  From the top of the hub, the operator should cut ("C") or dig 6.45 feet to get to the bottom elevation of the inlet and then the top would be 0.41 feet below the hub.

 This is looking south at the east side of the road which still have utilities in the way.

 I took this picture to explain why the inlet would appear to be blocked.  In order to keep all the dirt from eroding into the new storm pipes and eventually into Line Creek, silt fence is placed in front of the inlet.  What that does is allow the water to pond, the eroded silt to settle, and the water to slowly infiltrate through the silt fence thereby keeping the water somewhat clear.  Otherwise downstream is a muddy mess and people and regulators get upset.

Hopefully the slow misty rain today won't set the contractor or the utility companies back any this upcoming week and work can continue to progress.  Now it's time to get back to the couch as the third period of the Islanders and Capitals is ready to start and it's tied at 1.

 

Platte County Menard's™ Opening April/May 2016

If you haven't heard or noticed, work has started on Green Hills Road north of Route 152.  This work is being done with the anticipation of Menard's™ opening in the spring of 2016.

The road will be widened and the sight lines improved.  Proposed improvements look like this.

This is being paid for by...........<hushed scary political voice>...........the  KCI Corridor TIF.  You know that evil TIF that's not diverted $1 of property tax from the Park Hill School District, paid to build MoDOT an interchange at 152 and Ambassador, fixed Barry Road east of I-29 and over to St. Lukes Hospital, and is going to pay for almost all of the Route 152 Trail in Platte County.

Below are some pictures of the project before the road was closed.

KCP&L is putting in new underground power service.

A good deal of grading was done before the road had to be closed.

The job needs dirt and luckily the property owner to the east of the project was willing to work with the TIF to provide that dirt which saves the project time and money.

What you don't see in the picture below is the large underground KCP&L power vault at the southwest corner of the intersection.  The configuration of the roundabout looks a little skewed from the existing intersection because the cost to move that vault was something like a half million dollars.

Another issue was the quarter of a million dollar corner power transmission pole which for some reason no one noticed was there when the street was built on the east side of Green Hills.  That again created geometric issues for the roundabout.

If it doesn't rain and get muddy again (it seems to have rained every third day since this job started) I will try and grab some pictures of progress of the utility companies and the road contractor.  From what I've been told, work should continue to progress and it should be open by Labor Day with final work like sidewalks and seeding to happen after that.

Menard's™ has just gotten their plat approved so they are in the process of getting approvals to start moving dirt and putting in their utilities and streets so everything is a go for a 2016 opening (unless we do something stupid like bomb Libya and jack gas back up to $4/gallon). 

Now Sam's Club™ on the other hand is doing nothing so it looks like 2017 might be the earliest that they would open a Platte County store.

I-70 Suck Began Today (St. Louis Bound Travel)

I noticed this while I was checking out the MoDOT website.  Details here.  If I have to head that way, I plan on using 210 or 24 to 65 south, mostly over built four lane roads....

MoDOT will make improvements along Interstate 70 in Saline County from the Blackwater River bridges to the Cooper County. The bridges are located at mile marker 77 near Marshall Junction. The work includes replacing the bridge decks and providing a new pavement surface for motorists.  I-70 traffic will be ONE lane in both directions for the duration of this project.

Why is MoDOT doing this project?  The bridge decks in both directions of I-70 over the Blackwater River require full deck replacement.  The pavement along I-70 from the Blackwater River bridges to the Cooper County line is scheduled for overlay improvements. How will this project benefit me?  The new bridge decks will provide 20+ years of uninterrupted service and the pavement will provide a smooth ride for travelers in Saline County. What is the project timeline?  Bridge work begins Monday, April 20. The westbound bridge will be complete mid-August and the eastbound bridge will be complete in mid-September.  This is a full 24/7 lane closure on I-70 but work will be performed during daytime hours and will reduce lanes to one 12-foot lane in each direction, and cause heavy congestion through the area. This will be followed by pavement work on I-70 from the bridges east to the Cooper County line. Pavement work is scheduled to be complete in November. All work is weather dependent. MoDOT recommends motorists allow extra travel time through the work zone and prepare for heavy congestion. More than 26,000 cars travel this corridor daily, of which 40 percent includes truck traffic. Roadside message boards will be updated with estimated travel time as it is available.

 

I-29 Suck Begins Tomorrow

As I was doing about 75mph on my way to a late afternoon meeting at the Platte County Resource Center, I was doing some reminiscing.  One of the things (besides the school district) that attracted us to Platte County was I figured that if traffic ever got to a Denver or Chicago level of traffic suck, someone at MoDOT would figure out a way to widen I-29 to keep the connection from downtown to KCI moving smoothly.  That has to be the only reason why the road was built as six lanes back in the 1960's.

When we first moved to Kansas City, we endured a summer of the median upgrade and re-surfacing of I-29 from Riverside to Barry Road.  For those of you who can remember, the median on I-29 used to be a metal guardrail with curb near the edge of the travel lane.  That wasn't the safest way to design a median and it was all ripped out and the much safer concrete jersey barrier was installed with some shoulders.  That required lane drops from three to two lanes except on weekends when sometimes it would be reduced to one lane each way while the contractor moved the temporary barriers. 

Anyways, 17 years later, we get to experience it again.  If you haven't heard, almost all of the bridges on I-29 from Riverside to KCI will be rehabbed this summer.  What this means is......you......(oh the humanity)......will be forced to drive the speed limit or experience stop and go traffic.

MoDOT has done a great job of trying to spread the word all over TV, radio, and social media.  They've created a special page here with project details and you can like their FB page here to keep up with things.

It's going to suck until it's all done but MoDOT has been pro-active and decided to do all the bridges at one time versus spreading the suck out over three or four years like I-70 bridge upgrades in the mid-2000's.  The contractor doing the job is the one (I think) that did the Broadway Extension Commutageddeon back in 2012 so they know what they are doing and should get it done to minimize any delay penalties. 

One major thing that you will have to remember if you have kids playing sports at Tiffany Springs Park is that the ramp from eastbound 152 to southbound 29 will be closed the whole project.  This is the ramp that is right along Zona Rosa in the southwest corner of the 152/29 interchange. 

The summary sheet shows which bridges are affected.

Here's the official release:

I-29 Bridge Improvements between I-435 and I-635 in Platte County

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MoDOT will make bridge improvements along the I-29 corridor in Platte County from Route D (Cookingham Drive) to Route 45 (64th Street). The work includes rehabilitating 12 bridges over some of the busiest local roads, including Route D (Cookingham Drive), 112th Street, Tiffany Springs Parkway, Barry Road, 72nd Street and Route 45 (64th Street).

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Project Schedule:

Work is expected to begin the week of April 20, 2015 and continue for approximately six months. All work is weather dependent.

Work will impact motorists' arrivals and departures are KCI Airport.

Work Zone Features:

MoDOT is encouraging motorists to use alternate routes during construction, such as I-435 or US 169.

Motorists on I-29 should expect significant delays especially during rush hours and peak periods.

Expect lane reductions, narrow lanes and ramp closures during construction.

 

• Two lanes of I-29 will be maintained in each direction between 112th Street and Route 45 (64th Street).
• I-29 will be reduced to one lane at the main entrance of KCI Airport at Exit 13, Route D (Cookingham Drive) for each direction for 80 calendar days.
• The ramp from eastbound Route 152 to southbound I-29 will be closed for the duration of the project.
• I-29 lanes will be narrowed at the bridge locations.
• Temporary lane closures may be encountered on Route D (Cookingham Drive), 112th Street, Tiffany Springs Parkway, Barry Road, 72nd Street and Route 45 (64th Street) during off peak hours.

Motorists who are utilizing Kansas City International Airport (KCI) should make appropriate adjustments to meet departure and arrival times.

The project contractor is Comanche Construction Inc. The overall value of the construction contract is $11.2 million and is a continuation of the construction work that occurred on I-635 between I-29 and Kansas in 2014.

I noticed that the contractor has had the road construction sign posts in the ground and the signs laying next to them ready to be put up.  The big thing to remember tomorrow is that the contractor will be putting up barriers and traffic cones so that highway crossovers can be installed.  Ramp merges will be tight and therefore backups will happen real fast and last long wherever there is a merge.  The first two weeks of a construction job where lanes are reduced always double suck because people are not sure of where they are supposed to be going and where they will wind up.  Just keep calm and don't let this happen to you.....

 

Clip credit to Sony Pictures Television from the Married With Children show.