Hwy 78 simple ped connection over Blue River, Kansas City (04KCM0256)
Status:
City: Kansas City. Route: Rt. 78/23rd Street Location: On the Blue River Bridge of US 78/23rd Street in Kansas City (near Independence)
Type: Sidewalk
Description:
Remove fence and create a short ped connection between the existing sidewalk in the Blue River Hwy 78 bridge and an adjacent road shoulder.
This will create a continuous route for pedestrians between the east and west sides of the Blue River in this area.
Importance:
23rd Street (US 78) through the Blue River Valley has a nice sidewalk all the way across a long viaduct. However once you reach the east side of the viaduct the sidewalk is fenced off and abruptly ends.
Pedestrians in the area are forced to walk in a four lane road with no shoulders instead.
This is not an extremely high-use pedestrian area but because 23rd Street connects residences and nearby commercial areas/job sites the route has daily pedestrian traffic.
This is a very, very simple and inexpensive fix that will improve safety for these users. It will also help reduce criticism of MoDOT for spending a significant amount of money to build a sidewalk across a bridge that, up until now, has been completely unusable.
You can see the bridge, sidewalk, & fence in this streetview link:
Obstacles:
None. This is a very inexpensive, simple project.