The final public meeting on the Highway 9 Corridor Study will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29 at Parkville Presbyterian Church. At the Parkville Board of Aldermen meeting last week, CFS Engineering presented its findings so far, noting that all stakeholders they have contacted support the project. The project is a joint venture between Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) as part of its Planning Sustainable Places program and Parkville, Riverside, Platte County, Park University and the Missouri Department of Transportation.
The study will result in a preliminary conceptual design for needed improvements along the highway and provides cost estimates for better positioning in future grant requests.
CFS Engineers was hired in April to work on the MARC-funded project. CFS has completed the preliminary design, chopping the Highway 9 corridor into 12 project sections, each with its own price tag.
The preferred configurations for most areas of the corridor are for a three-lane roadway complete with a 10-foot pedestrian path alongside the road and a five-foot sidewalk on the other side. In some areas, particularly through downtown, the roadway would remain at two lanes, but the sidewalks and multi-use pathway would be maintained.
All configurations include green space.
The project begins at Highway 45 to Northwest 62nd Street with a three-lane section and enclosed storm sewer at an estimated cost of $726,800; from 62nd to the Parkville Athletic Complex, a traffic signal would be installed at Clark Avenue to coordinate with the pedestrian crossing and allow for construction on the east side of the highway at a cost of $786,400; from the PAC to Lakeview Drive driveway access locations would be defined, parking improved and a frontage slip lane would be constructed where possible at a cost of $1.2 million; Lakeview Drive to 13th Street would potentially include a new Main Street connection allowing better access to residential areas at a cost of $2.8 million; 13th Street to 12th Street would include reconstruction of the retaining wall and turning lanes as well as side street sidewalks at a cost of $393,700; from 12th Street to 7th Street would contain much of the same work as the previous section, with turning lanes, retaining walls and sidewalks, at a cost of $675,000; from 7th to 5th streets, the roadway would remain at two lanes due to the narrow right-of-way and impacts on existing properties, along with intersection improvements at 6th Street, at a cost of $554,600; from Second Street to White Alloe Creek, the project would need to be coordinated with adjacent project sections to the east and west where the intersection would be widened and signalized at a cost of $707,500; from White Alloe Creek to Park University Drive the roadway would be widened and signals modified at a cost of $258,500; from Park University Drive to Coffey Road the roadway would be widened and a trail connection made at a cost of $2.30 million; from Coffey Road to Mattox Road, heading into Riverside, a signal would be installed, the roadway widened and trail connection made at a cost of $351,000. Riverside has also asked for CFS to investigate the construction of a trail along the north side of Highway 9 — possibly up on the river bluff — between Riverside and Parkville.
Using the MARC project scoring criteria, CFS also weighed the project segments. Such multi-modal transportation plans are favored heavily by the state and federal agencies who may allocate funding to the city. The engineers also identified areas favorable for redevelopment and the potential economic impacts of such development along the corridor.
The meeting will be held as an open house, with engineers on site to explain and discuss the project recommendations. More information is available on the Parkville website at parkvillemo.gov, under community development.