urbanSTL

ldai_phs wrote: ↑

Sep 23, 2021

Unified Government of Wyandotte County & KC Kansas along with University of Kansas Medical Center are funding/backing the study of an exension across state line. This would be the first east/west extension of the streetcar.

KU Med desires a streetcar line from main down 39th street to their campus. That alone would be about 1.4 miles and serve KU Med, Volker, midtown, and Westport. KCATA has expanded upon the request and wants to study taking that line further east of main. I am not really sure how that would go. One possibility would be to take main north to 31st or Linwood and continue east.

Edit: VP of Planning for KCATA said goal of east/west study is to activate transit on Rock Island ROW. That starts at Truman Sports Complex and runs to south Lee’s Summit. So we could see a minimum KU Med to Truman Sports Complex line get put forward now. KU Med to TSC is about 8.5 miles. It is being explored as streetcar. Rock Island is another 20 miles and the VP said could be done as BRT initially.

Nighttime aerial shots of downtown KC looked great on Sunday Night Football this past weekend. 

KC Downtown Soccer Stadium.

11,000 seats for $70 million privately financed. Tenant is KC NWSL. Lease was signed.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/kansas-ci ... 1635214796

^Along streetcar line that will likely extend to casino, designed to add capacity, planned for year round events not just soccer.  

Cool spot

It's a good idea, god knows we have enough used tires sitting around and breeding mosquitoes. Would probably be somewhat flexible around root growth too.

Also easier on the knees and I'm just imaging now nice that would be for strollers... 

^ thanks for sharing, being clueless I wonder how that plays out with possible glare & FAA approval?   

You would think that a lot of airports have huge opportunities in establishing large solar arrays as they certainly don't need much height.  Especially airports out on the edge of metro areas like KCI and or some of the noise abatement programs that bought out neighborhoods like Lambert did.    

Blue River Commerce Center

Remediation and redevelopment of the former Federal Gov. Complex on Bannister is speeding up. In late 2020, the developer expected to be completed in 2027-2032. Now, the project is on track to finish in 2023-2024 due to extremely strong demand for industrial space.

Building 1: nearly completed
Building 2: under way
Building 3: approved this week
Building 4: just started construction
Building 5: approved this week
Building 6: remaining
Building 7: remaining

Those buildings add up to 1.7 million sqft on-going and 800,000 sqft left to go. I believe KC metro is approaching 13 million sqft under construction per my recent discussions.

This project is serviced by buses and has a school district training center component so it’s exciting to see the project succeed. Hopefully we will see more transit accessible and urban core adjacent projects.



https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/ ... 2021-11-11

dredger wrote: ↑

Nov 11, 2021

^ thanks for sharing, being clueless I wonder how that plays out with possible glare & FAA approval?   

There are already some airports approved for it, but sounds like this one is by far the largest.

hobo digitale wrote:

dredger wrote: ↑

Nov 11, 2021

^ thanks for sharing, being clueless I wonder how that plays out with possible glare & FAA approval?   

There are already some airports approved for it, but sounds like this one is by far the largest.

KCI has a solar field near a runway already.

^ & ^^ thanks.  Curious if anyone has an understanding and or insight.  What is being proposed is above and beyond anything I can think that is out there or at least in my biz travels between airports.   Just have a vision of that solar power brochure showing a big solar array out in the desert with sun shining brightly off the panels and can't see how it wouldn't impact a pilot.  But I'm pretty much clueless

dredger wrote:^ & ^^ thanks.  Curious if anyone has an understanding and or insight.  What is being proposed is above and beyond anything I can think that is out there or at least in my biz travels between airports.   Just have a vision of that solar power brochure showing a big solar array out in the desert with sun shining brightly off the panels and can't see how it wouldn't impact a pilot.  But I'm pretty much clueless

Solar electric panels reflect about 1-2% of light.

There is a different technology that uses glass mirrors to reflect light onto a central tower. This heats water that turns a generator to produce power (these aren’t built anymore).

Solar Panels ( think KCI)



Reflectors

ldai_phs wrote: ↑

Nov 11, 2021

hobo digitale wrote:

dredger wrote: ↑

Nov 11, 2021

^ thanks for sharing, being clueless I wonder how that plays out with possible glare & FAA approval?   

There are already some airports approved for it, but sounds like this one is by far the largest.

KCI has a solar field near a runway already.

There's a modest one at Lambert as well. I expect they're the wave of the future. I hope this beast at KCI goes well and helps to demonstrate how it can be done to everyone. That really is a glorious monster!

KCK is pursuing a gondola system to connect their city and KCMO. SOM's remderings came out today.

An aerial lift could cost about half as much per mile to build than the Kansas City streetcar, $25 million vs $50 million, Gunnar said. Gondola cabins range in size from 15 passengers to 35-40 passengers and a line could carry between 3,000 and 5,000 people per hour.

^At half the cost of streetcar per mile would seem like this has a realistic shot given KCK planned to pursue streetcar and should handle the bluff better than streetcar climb with no traffic challenges.  It needs to extend a bit more though to Main St. streetcar, or to Broadway and encourage development/foot traffic along 8th to Main for a ped only street.

https://cityscenekc.com/gondola-linking ... -official/

That's a pretty cool idea, connecting Downtown KC to the West Bottoms and Downtown KCK should be a priority for the region. I'm curious about what the future expansion potential might look like. I hope make it free.

^Seems to be an appropriate mode given the terrain challenges (bluffs) but would be surprised if it expands much beyond that.  Streetcar more ideal given how integrated it is into sidewalk but this could work for this situation and no traffic challenges, supposedly lower cost.  I wonder if they can pull off stops in W Bottoms though, that could add significant costs to deal with hirise platforms, additional elevator maintenance, yada yada.

Will be great way for KCMO visitors to discover the expanding Little Mexico in KCK, and for downtown dwellers to venture over for broad range of Mexican/Guatemalan/Honduran eats.  OTOH, maybe best to keep secret for the truly adventurous.