When will downtown Kansas City streets reopen after the parade? Here’s the city’s plan

Update: Grand Boulevard and streets adjoining the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory parade route began re-opening to traffic around 6:45 p.m., according to a Kansas City police spokesman.

With an estimated 500,000 people expected to crowd downtown Kansas City Wednesday and streets closed up and down the parade route, some fans have already started wondering when the blocked roads will open again.

According to city officials, there is no set time scheduled to open the streets that are closed along the parade route on Grand Boulevard. They will be opened in sections after the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory parade, when workers have finished cleaning them.

That’s a different approach from the one the city took in the 2020 Super Bowl parade, according to Kansas City spokeswoman Sherae Honeycutt.

Three years ago after the parade, roads were opened before street sweepers were able to clean them, and the workers were delayed by people flooding the streets. Workers were still cleaning up the streets hours later that night and trash service was delayed one day for some residents, KSHB 41 reported at the time.

This time, the city plans to keep streets closed longer so that the cleaners can do their jobs. The streets will be opened section by section as they are cleaned, Honeycutt said in an emailed statement.

Clean up plan

The city plans to have about 80 workers engaged in cleanup after the parade, which will be more than were employed in 2020. The cleanup efforts are expected to begin immediately after the parade and take about six hours.

The work will include three city departments: Public Works, KC Water and Parks & Recreation.

The city is not canceling trash service and does not expect any problems with trash collection beyond a slight delay.

One advantage for the city this year, as compared with last time: In 2020 a Post Malone concert was going on at the T-Mobile Center the night of the parade, which brought more traffic downtown. There are no events scheduled at the T-Mobil center Wednesday night.

Once city workers finish the parade cleanup, they expect to transition to snow operations.

While it’s expected to be a clear day for the Kansas City Chiefs victory parade, snow and other precipitation will roll in overnight Wednesday across the metro area and continue into the day Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.

This story was originally published February 15, 2023 at 9:14 AM.