Olsson Helps Win Federal Grant to Develop Rapid Transit in Kansas City Region

By Clyde Prem, AICP, PTP

 

Olsson Associates recently learned that our two Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) projects in the Kansas City area would receive a $22 million grant, the culmination of our two years of serving as the prime consultant and being instrumental in writing the grant application.

This grant is part of a broader $50 million stimulus grant for the KC area, which was announced on February 17 by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced $1.5 billion in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Grants at this time. Grants were provided to more than 50 high-priority, innovative transportation projects across the country, and they are funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Projects eligible for TIGER funding included highways, bridges, transit, passenger and freight rail, and port infrastructure. The U.S. DOT received nearly 1,400 grant applications requesting more than $57 billion from all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

About the Project

	Smart Moves Regional Transit Vision Conceptual Map for Kansas City, Missouri

In 2007, Olsson was hired by the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) to complete a study of transit alternatives in the State Avenue corridor. This 13-mile corridor runs from downtown Kansas City, Missouri, to downtown Kansas City, Kansas, to Village West in western Wyandotte County.

Village West is the commercial/activity center that is home to the Kansas Speedway, Cabela's, and The Legends, a retail and entertainment development. The Unified Government of Wyandotte County in Kansas City, Kansas, along with the Kansas Department of Transportation, wanted to move people between Kansas City and Village West using an upscale public transportation option. Our Olsson team investigated increased bus service, a bus rapid transit system for the corridor, and express bus service options. We followed the initial study by continuing our work with the KCATA to develop alignment, station locations, and transit centers along the corridor, considering connectivity to local transit service and right-of-way requirements.

Future Enhanced East Gateway Transit Center

In 2008, Olsson was hired by Johnson County Transit to evaluate transit alternatives in the Metcalf and Shawnee Mission Parkway corridors. The study provided a detailed assessment of potential strategies that would improve transit services. Olsson developed a plan for BRT in these corridors.

Because of this experience, the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) asked Olsson to develop an implementation plan for these two corridors plus five additional corridors described in the Smart Moves Regional Transit Vision.

Olsson worked with numerous local communities to identify and locate capital facilities that would support enhanced transit or BRT transit service within the defined corridors. This information was used to prepare an application through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) that was submitted by MARC.

Existing 3rd and Grand MAX BRT Transit Station

We and our clients were very excited to learn that our grant was approved and that the project will be 100 percent federally funded. The money will go toward expanding bus rapid transit lines across the KC metro and to fund bus stops, pedestrian crossings, and technology that will give express buses priority at traffic signals. The funding will help create a regional rapid transit network in Kansas City.

Olsson continues to work with our clients to implement these transit routes and to design the supporting transit facilities.

You can reach Clyde Prem with Olsson's Transportation Planning and Transit team at cprem@oaconsulting.com.

 

 

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