Plans to rebuild long-closed KCK bridge are finally moving forward. What’s next?
After winning $135 million in earmarked funds, then losing those funds, then getting them back, Kansas City, Kansas, may soon have clearer plans on how state transportation officials are going to rebuild the long-closed Central Avenue Bridge.
KCK residents will soon have the chance to hear how plans to replace the bridge are going, what sorts of designs the Kansas Department of Transportation is reviewing and to speak with staff involved with the project.
KDOT is holding a community meeting at 4 p.m. on May 13 in downtown KCK where people can also record public comments on what they want to see come out of the project, which is scheduled to begin construction sometime in 2028.
The Central Avenue Bridge, which has been closed for more than five years, has effectively shut off businesses in the Central Avenue business corridor from needed foot traffic. Business owners and community leaders have said the closure has negatively affected business, extended commutes and created confusion as people try to make their ways around the metro.
Plans to rebuild area bridges, multiple of which have been closed in recent years, have been long delayed due to a lack of funding. Community advocates for more than four years went knocking, canvassing and advocating at the local and state levels to get the resources needed to reopen the Central Avenue Bridge.
Finally, back in January, Gov. Laura Kelly announced that the state government would earmark $135 million in transportation funding to replace the defunct bridge, as well as two state-owned bridges on Central Avenue over Interstate 70 and the Union Pacific Railroad.
That funding was, at one point, at risk when the Kansas House of Representatives’ Appropriations Committee voted to redistribute it throughout various parts of rural Kansas. Despite the dispute, and after a KCK coalition fought to keep the bridge funding local, the budget stipulation that would’ve made that redistribution happen did not make it into the final budget.
According to a joint news release from KDOT and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and KCK, the entire bridge replacement project includes:
- Replacing the Central Avenue Bridge;
- Replacing an interchange and bridge over I-70;
- Building a new bridge over the Union Pacific Railroad yard;
- Replacing eastbound ramps on I-70;
- Replacing and realigning the a westbound ramp off I-670;
- Replacing part of the eastbound ramp off I-670;
- Replacing a steel truss bridge that crosses the Kansas River.
The Star’s Matthew Kelly contributed to the reporting of this story.
