KCPowercat wrote: ↑Mon Apr 15, 2024 11:36 am
what was the scope of the study? Crossing the RR is one problem but even using industrial is pretty treacherous and I wouldn't recommend anybody walk it currently.
It's a little hard to define. We went in with the idea that we might get something like a Town of Kansas bridge. We had hoped that Spire would give up the property along 3rd Street and Port Authority seemed willing to help them find a replacement. I'm sure it would take a lot of remediation and it's near the tracks, but that would be a great place to put a bridge and maybe something like a dog park. It's around 13 acres.
3rd Street came up for its lack of sidewalks, lights, and traffic calming as well as a deteriorating bridge going over the railroad tracks currently. We discussed similar improvements to 5th Street in Columbus Park and how Berkley Parkway may eventually look.
Another option was to have a pedestrian bridge extending from Lydia which gives access to the Cliff Drive connector. That pedestrian bridge would connect to some other type of bridge for cars that goes into Berkley. I always had trouble visualizing that one, and I'm sure it would be expensive, but the engineers seemed to like it.
They suggested a car bridge with pedestrian and bike facilities on the side that would start around 3rd and Troost. We had a lot of concerns about turning Columbus Park into a free parking lot for the stadium, which is already happening to a degree, as well as an attractive shortcut to the riverfront.
We have not yet got to the engineering portion, so I don't know how many of these ideas are realistic. Some of them relied upon the railroad being willing to move some tracks closer together, and you can imagine how hard that is.
That rail crossing is one of the most dangerous in the state of Missouri, and we talked about how to keep from cutting off the East Bottoms in any way that would impede their development.
It feels as if they put the stadium there without the full logistics to support it and it's going to be a rough year until the streetcar goes in.
