Home and Auto I-49

I'mAlwaysRight · 12-12-2012, 10:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GloryDayz

OK, so the same road gets renamed from 71 to 49 and everybody's happy, I get it.. But they're leaving-out the Bruce R. Watkins Drive portion, "it stays the same." What does that mean? It stays 71? The state gets to keep paying 100% of it? They won't get rid of the GD dumbass lights that serve no purpose other than to slow progress and piss people off??!! WTF for?

Did you read the article? This has been a long time coming. The "dumbass lights" are there to accommodate the local residents. Some of the folks along the Bruce Watkins Drive were booted off of their land, out of their homes, twenty+ years ago. They were compensated pennies/dollar what their properties would have been worth in todays $. All the community asked for was reasonable access to the highway that divided their neighborhoods. Besides, I-49 is meant to be a link between the South and the new Gardener Hub. Linking that to the North (Canada) is easy via I-435/I-29.

GloryDayz · 12-13-2012, 07:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by I'mAlwaysRight

Did you read the article? This has been a long time coming. The "dumbass lights" are there to accommodate the local residents. Some of the folks along the Bruce Watkins Drive were booted off of their land, out of their homes, twenty+ years ago. They were compensated pennies/dollar what their properties would have been worth in todays $. All the community asked for was reasonable access to the highway that divided their neighborhoods. Besides, I-49 is meant to be a link between the South and the new Gardener Hub. Linking that to the North (Canada) is easy via I-435/I-29.

I think over/under passes and on ramps are plenty reasonable in terms of access. As for being displaced, it's never fun, but it's rare that they essentially leave the road as inefficient as they're leaving it simply because of that. As for pennies on the dollar, I think 20 years should always make a difference. In this case, if you're saying that while so many people are having a hard time selling homes, perhaps the vitality of that corridor has as much to do with the traffic that the new BRW Drive has brought as anything else. It's a double-edged sword to say the least. Look how many businesses and towns are just giddy about it... I'll admit I get the concept, but sometimes I think that it's a bit overplayed - like the $100M trolleys..

PatriotReign · 12-13-2012, 08:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by I'mAlwaysRight

Did you read the article? This has been a long time coming. The "dumbass lights" are there to accommodate the local residents. Some of the folks along the Bruce Watkins Drive were booted off of their land, out of their homes, twenty+ years ago. They were compensated pennies/dollar what their properties would have been worth in todays $. All the community asked for was reasonable access to the highway that divided their neighborhoods. Besides, I-49 is meant to be a link between the South and the new Gardener Hub. Linking that to the North (Canada) is easy via I-435/I-29.

Its the Hood and todays housing market stinks.

GloryDayz · 12-13-2012, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PatriotReign

Its the Hood and todays housing market stinks.

There is that, but I've actually heard of said "court order" because I wanted a light added to 50 highway in Lee's Summit for buses taking kids to school and was told you can't add them to highways. I brought up those along that part of 71, and the MO traffic engineer I was talking to just laughed and said that it was Emanuel Cleaver "deal" to help vitalize that small part of the road. It didn't hold true north of Brush Creek...

Interesting..