Open House for State Avenue Corridor Transit Improvements

Posted on: May 25, 2011

The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County-Kansas City, Ks. (UG), are holding an open house to discuss preliminary design plans for the Minnesota/State Avenue transit corridor. The open house will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 7, 2011, in the McCarthy Gallery Room of the Jack Reardon Convention Center (520 Minnesota Avenue) in Kansas City, Ks. The open house will allow area residents, businesses and commuters to review project exhibits and provide comment. KCATA and UG staff, along with consultant design team members, will be on hand to answer questions and discuss issues and/or concerns. The display materials will show the design team’s progress to-date on the preliminary design of the overall corridor and the conceptual improvements planned for the 7th and Minnesota transit center. State Avenue Connex will include new transit centers at both 7th and Minnesota Avenue and at 47th and State Avenue (Indian Springs). Both transit centers will be custom-built with improved passenger waiting areas and amenities such as real-time passenger information. Other State Avenue corridor Connex stop improvements include bus passenger shelters and benches, bus stop platforms, landscaping and environmentally friendly features, and improved pedestrian connections. KCATA and UG have secured federal TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) funding to improve the existing Minnesota/State Avenue corridor. The improvements will be made along the transit route, beginning at the 10th and Main MetroCenter in downtown Kansas City, Mo., travel through Downtown Kansas City, Ks., and end at Village West at 109th and Parallel Parkway in Wyandotte County before returning in the opposite direction. The route will serve activity centers and neighborhoods along State and Minnesota avenues. State Avenue Connex will be complete in 2013. Transit improvements are important to State Avenue because the route is a major east-west connection through the Kansas City metropolitan area. State Avenue provides such connections by linking Kansas City’s revitalized urban core to new development occurring farther west. In addition, with two new transit centers providing regional connections, improving State Avenue as a Metro Connex route supports the regional vision for enhanced and expanded regional transit in Kansas City, described by Smart Moves, the regional transit vision. State Avenue Connex will improve transit facilities and continue to provide access to jobs, support economic development and provide efficient transportation. For more information, visit the project web page at [url=http://www.kcata.org]http://www.kcata.org[/url] or the TIGER web page at [url=http://www.dot.gov/recovery/ost/faqs.htm]http://www.dot.gov/recovery/ost/faqs.htm[/url]. If you require a sign-language interpreter or other communication aids at the meeting, please call Keith Sanders, KCATA Project Manager at (816) 346-0359 or Interim Transit Manager Emerick Cross at 913-573-6784 at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting. Click on the map for a closer view.