Residents start petition to push lawmakers to give back KCK bridge repair funds
A Kansas City, Kansas, coalition is fighting to get back critical state infrastructure funding meant to fix area bridges that may be diverted to other parts of Kansas under the proposed budget.
The Coalition to Fix Central Avenue Bridge is circulating a petition that urges lawmakers to remove a budget term that, if approved, would distribute more than $135 million in bridge repair funds earmarked for KCK to rural communities across the state instead.
Whether that term is removed from the budget will soon fall to the state’s bi-partisan Budget Conference Committee. If they ultimately choose to keep the stipulation in the state budget, only Gov. Laura Kelly could remove it via a line-item veto.
As of 5 p.m. Monday, that meeting had not been formally scheduled.
If the coalition gets what it wants, KCK could keep the millions in area infrastructure funding that Kelly promised to the city back in January.
Those dollars would be used to resume construction on the long-closed Central Avenue Bridge, a major artery connecting the city’s urban core to the West Bottoms that’s been closed for about five years. Construction was scheduled to begin in 2028. Funds would also be used to repair two other area bridges.
The absence of the Central Avenue Bridge has affected the daily commutes of people who live, work and visit KCK for years. Delayed construction has kept businesses and neighborhoods from needed foot traffic.
“We’ve heard from businesses that can’t operate efficiently. We’ve heard from residents who struggle to reach medical appointments. We’ve heard from essential workers who drive miles out of their way to serve our community,” according to the petition. “This bridge is critical infrastructure that generates economic benefit for Kansas City, Kansas, and the entire state.”
The petition had 21 signatures by late Monday afternoon.
It comes about a month after a state appropriations committee approved that budget condition, which state Rep. Shannon Francis, a Republican who represents parts of Seward and Meade counties in southwest Kansas, pitched.
During that February meeting, Francis told the committee he was concerned by the millions in infrastructure costs the state would need to pay to prepare for the Kansas City Chiefs’ move into KCK, and said granting that funding to KCK would be unfair to other counties that don’t spend as much on infrastructure.
The meeting also came about a week after KCK officials in a public meeting said they’ve been trying to acquire bridge funding for the city throughout their negotiations with the Chiefs and state. At the time, an attorney representing the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and KCK told the county commissioners that discussions included $135 million for the Central Avenue Bridge; $1.2 million for the Kansas Avenue Bridge; $2 million for the Union Pacific Bridge; and $1.5 million for east-west bus line improvements.
Coalition members and KCK lawmakers have fought for years to restart bridge construction and reconnect the city to other parts of the metro. The projects that Kelly promised the city earlier this year were among numerous bridge closures shutting parts of inner KCK off from neighboring communities.
State Rep. Pam Curtis, who for four years has worked alongside the coalition to bring bridge funding to KCK, recently called on residents to reach out to members of the Budget Conference Committee, and Kelly, in a social media post. She asked them to tell officials about the importance of rebuilding the Central Avenue Bridge.
“This decision is now in the hands of the Budget Conference Committee,” Curtis wrote in the post. “While I am (hopeful) that the (proviso) will be removed, it is your voices, the voices of the businesses and residents impacted by the closure, that resulted in the announcement that the bridge would be rebuilt, only to have the rug pulled out from under us a few weeks later.”
