KC intersections along U.S. 71 could change dramatically. New renderings show how
Turning U.S. Highway 71 into a parkway is still a long way away. But city planners have an idea of what it might look like if given the chance to address traffic and safety issues on the congested roadway.
The project known as “Reconnecting the East Side” intends to improve the roadway, also known as Bruce R. Watkins Drive, while reconnecting predominantly Black neighborhoods that were torn apart by the highway’s construction decades ago. It also aims to address traffic congestion, safety and environmental concerns on the highway, while also boosting the local economy by creating more space for future development.
City officials in early April unveiled a plan called the “Parkway Alternative” that would turn a section of U.S. 71 between 85th Street and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard into a freeway and connect the neighborhoods in that area with new surface streets using bridges that travel over the highway.
Planners for the project provided The Star with renderings of how the roadway may look sitting deeper in the ground and how certain intersections could be removed from the higher-traffic highway through over and underpasses.
Ryan McMonigle, a spokesperson for the city, said in an email that the project would aim to separate east-west neighborhood traffic from the north-south commuter flow of the highway.
“The streets and sidewalks for the intersections themselves would be above the highway,” McMonigle said. “This would separate the pedestrian traffic and vehicular traffic going east to west from the traffic on the highway, which would make it safer.”
Currently, much of the north and south traffic roads of U.S. 71 between 75th and 51st streets are separated by greenery, putting the highway close to the adjacent homes and businesses.
The project would move the highway in those areas closer together — eliminating the gap between the northbound road and southbound road — and place the green space on the outside of the highway. The narrower roadway would also move traffic further from the homes and businesses. Renderings show creating more than 150 feet of buffer and green space.
City planners have said the narrower roadway allows for the green space to feature new vegetation like trees or a public transportation corridor for buses or potential future rail.
A key feature of the parkway plan is replacing intersections with overpasses. Gregory Boulevard and 55th Streets would no longer interact with U.S. 71, and feature an “at grade” level roadway. The overpasses may still feature traffic lights where the street meets new on and off ramps from the highway.
Meanwhile, the 59th Street intersection would be an outlier. Because of the environmental conditions around that area, that road would travel underneath the highway, rather than above it like the others.
The under and overpasses aim to make the areas that currently intersect with the highway much safer for drivers and pedestrians.
“The goal is to make them higher quality crossings with enhanced pedestrian facilities and greenery,” McMonigle said. But more precise renderings will come together later in the project, “at which point there would be additional public engagement that would shape the final design,” he said.
It still may be years before the highway and the neighborhood surface streets begin to change.
Before the project can move forward, a judge must sign off on the plan because of a federal consent decree that’s meant to protect the civil rights of the residents near the roadway. Project planners will take their feedback to court this summer for review.
The city is collecting feedback until May 8. Residents can share their comments on the city’s Reconnecting the East Side website.
So far, nearby residents seem to have supported the idea. McMonigle said planners continue to receive positive comments about the plan.
“Overall, we’ve heard a lot of positive reactions to the parkway alternative,” McMonigle said, “with most people being supportive of carrying the alternative forward through the project process.”
