River Crossings

The Unified Government cannot afford to be in the river crossing business

27 March 2023 - Robbie Anderson

Tonight the Unified Government Public Works Standing Committee will meet to discuss major river crossing bridges that have been closed due to safety inspections. The bridges were built in the early 1900s. They were built for a different era when the West Bottoms was buzzing with flies and cows waiting to board trains to Chicago. At the time, the economic activity justified the construction of the bridges and there were few options to get people, goods, and services across the river.

Today, there are other ways to cross the Kansas River. Two options are maintained by the Kansas Department of Transportation (I-70, I-670), and the James Street bridge maintained by the Unified Government. The average daily traffic on the Central Ave and Kansas Ave bridges are not significant when compared to the James St. bridge and pales in comparison to the two interstate bridges. 

The community needs to ask itself some tough questions:

If this bridge never existed, would we build it new today? What transportation problem would it be solving?

Can we afford to build this bridge? Considering all the other infrastructure needs in the community?

Will there be a dramatic change to economic activity to either side of the bridge and will the delta in tax generation justify the expense of the project? 

Should we be in the river crossing business?  

Tax payers in Wyandotte County should be wary of concentrating a huge portion of the capital budget to rebuild these bridges. The community should look to repurpose the Central Ave. bridge for non-vehicular traffic, if there is enough structural integrity to do so. The community should partner with Kansas City, Mo to use federal dollars to replace the Kansas Ave. bridge.

Additionally, dedicating funds to these projects will take away from the very limited budget public works has to repair box culverts and other short span bridges. Focusing the UG's limited budget into one huge capital project might lend itself well to a photo-op ribbon cutting or bridge naming but it does little to maintain the infrastructure that serves all Unified Government citizens. 

The hard thing for a politician to do here is admit we cannot afford to be in the river crossing business. It might save a few minutes for some travelers, but UG taxpayers will be paying it off for years.

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For more information on major river crossing bridges and the numerous short-span bridges across the Unified Government, click here.