By Kathy Feist
About 200 to 300 south Kansas City residents crowded the Wonderscope Museum meeting room Monday evening to hear the City’s presentation about the future of Blue River Road. Having bottled up their concerns for the past 15 years for the shuttered road, once a beautiful drive from Martin City to the Dodson area (87th Street), many could hardly contain their questions and emotions during the one-hour meeting.
Nicolos Bosonetto, city engineer and former resident of the Red Bridge area, presented several options for the future Blue River Road, which was shut down between Red Bridge and Bannister roads in 2010 when the road began sliding down the bank.
Option 1A – The City can replace the current roadway, shift the road 20 feet into the bluff, and build two 12-foot travel lanes and two 5-foot sidewalks. The cost: $46,121,400 or $29,953,800 depending on whether shale or limestone is excavated.
Option 1B – This option differs from the previous one by replacing the two sidewalks with a 10-foot wide path and a 5-foot wide sidewalk. It increases the cost slightly to $47,692,800 and $30,828,600, depending on whether shale or limestone is excavated.
Option 2 – Shift the road 60 feet into the bluff (onto limestone), construct two 12-foot wide travel lanes and a 10-foot wide sidewalk. Improve drainage. The estimated cost is $49,444,020 or $29,379,510, depending on whether shale or limestone is excavated.
Option 3A – Maintain the road that leads to the soccer fields. The southern portion of Blue River Road that has been shut down would convert to a paved 18-foot wide walking trail (from soccer fields to Chestnut Road). The cost is $19,244,780.
Option 3B – A variation of Option 3 adds roundabouts at the baseball fields and at Chestnut Road and a one-way access road south of the soccer fields. This cost is $20,418,480.
Option 4 – Convert the portion of the closed roads into a walking trail with a parking lot at Chestnut Road. The estimated cost is $1 million.
Option 5 – Cut through the hill and build a new road with two 12-foot wide lanes and one 10-foot sidewalk. The estimated cost is $42 million.
Bosonetto then presented a cost comparison with other street reconstruction projects in the area. The 75th and Wornall Traffic Improvement project is $14 million. Widening Holmes Road from Blue Ridge Road to 137th Street is $8 million. Reconstruction of 63rd Street, Main to Troost is $12 million. Improvements for East Bannister Road from I-435 to MO Hwy 350 is $62 million.
Bosonetto pointed out that these projects rate higher for capital improvements funding (CPI) based on usage. The last traffic data on Blue River Road was done in 2011 reporting 500 to 1000 vehicles traveled on the road on a daily basis. In contrast, Wornall Road sees 32,000 vehicles, Holmes Road 21,000.
The City had hoped for federal funding. But a report submitted last year from the Army Corp of Engineers determined that the road surface failure was due to ground and rock instability rather than the river itself. The federal government would have more responsibility if the problem had been caused by water erosion. A 1946 Flood Control Act allows the Corps of Engineers to construct stream bank protection for endangered roadways.
The portion of Blue River Road had been built on fill material rather than atop stable rock bed. Unfortunately, drainage was not properly maintained, which is necessary when roadways are built with fill. Consequently, the road collapsed.
This leaves the City responsible for its own oversight.
Bosonetto laid out funding options. PIAC funding allows $2 million per district each year. Blue River Road is in the Fifth and Sixth districts. If all the funding was allocated to Blue River Road, other PIAC projects (sidewalk and road repairs) would have to be put on hold. And it would still not be enough.
General Obligation bond funding allows for $3 million per year per district.
Federal grants could cover 80 percent of the funding, but Bosonetto warned that the federal government’s priorities align with the city’s concern for return on investment.
“They don’t select everyone,” he said. “And the problem with Blue River Road is that it scores extremely low. It has low usage. There’s no economic development. There’s no joining land uses.”
The city’s CIP scored Blue River Road 40/100 points.
Audience members were bubbling with questions throughout and after Bosonetto’s presentation. (City Council members and staff, worried about time constraints, frequently cut off questions.)
One South Kansas City resident questioned the value of “return on investment.”
“The CIP doesn’t take into consideration how we feel about the road,” he said.
His passion was reflected by the standing room-only turnout
After four questions, legislative aid Madison Hays directed members to break into group sessions with staff members.
But with as many as 300 people shoulder to shoulder, that seemed an impossibility. Many left for home. Some patiently waited their turn to bend an ear.
One concerned citizen, Blake Skole, discussed forming a Blue River Road organization with Hays, an aid to Councilmember Johnathan Duncan.
“I used to drive that road with my grandfather twice a week,” he recalled. “But my emotions and my sentimental value can’t be what this is about. This has to be about how can we as a community get more prudent taxes?”
He suggested creating an organization with a board of directors engaged in fundraising. “Those 10 people can lead with a level head and not the emotions and sentimental value that people have,” he said.
Skole says he is part of the Kemper family that homesteaded near the Blue River and Red Bridge roads in the 1860s. The farmstead is still occupied by family members.
The meeting date had been publicized for over a month by neighborhood associations and individuals. However, it wasn’t clear until the past week that the meeting was hosted by the Fifth and Sixth District City Council members. Many uninformed participants came with their own agenda regarding Blue River Road, including trash along the road and car spinouts and loud partying at the abandoned road.
The meeting ended around 6:30 pm with participants encouraged to go online to leave feedback.
The meeting was the first opportunity for public engagement since the road was closed.