From two lanes to four lanes.
From “road” to “parkway.”

That’s the difference federal highway money is making in eastern Independence.

Drivers heading north on Selsa Road from its intersection at East 39th Street quickly encounter the four-lane Little Blue Parkway, now under construction.

A series of upright bridge columns, ready to shoulder a four-lane bridge deck, throws shadows over Selsa Road’s narrow two lanes. To the north, workmen toil on an abutment that will join the completed bridge to the parkway headed north.
The first phase of the Little Blue Parkway should be completed north to R.D. Mize Road this autumn. The parkway, though, is not even the only four-lane road being built in the immediate neighborhood. Just a short drive to the west is the first phase of an extension of Jackson Drive, also north to R.D. Mize Road, and much of it funded by a 2004 tax increment financing agreement.

“The two contracts — the first phases of the Jackson Drive extension and Little Blue Parkway — represent about $31 million being invested in economic activity for Independence,” said John Powell, the city’s public works director.

The two projects, along with ongoing repaving work that is part of the city’s street sales tax program, represent an unprecedented public works boom in Independence

“There is no doubt about that,” said Powell, a 29-year veteran of the city’s public works department. “Just with the size and complexity of the projects now underway, this is well beyond what we have tackled before.”

The projects give Powell his own perspective on the new federal stimulus package.

Much of the money driving the $19 million Little Blue Parkway project came from the federal government. Still more federal road money now could be headed Missouri’s way. State officials have estimated Missouri could receive more than $750 million in stimulus funds for highways, transit and bridges.

While Powell is satisfied with the emphasis on infrastructure, he also believes residents in Independence and eastern Jackson County should be level-headed about what to expect.

“There have been a lot of expectations being built up by coverage of that legislation,” Powell said. “I think there is a gap between reality and expectation.”

While Missouri highway officials have said some projects could be ready to go as early as this spring, the Little Blue Parkway has been on the drawing board for years.

Much of the project’s first phase is being driven by approximately $30 million that was part of a $286 billion federal highway bill approved back in 2005.

Further, the parkway’s first phase, an approximately seven-mile stretch that is expected to be completed north through to U.S. 24 by 2010, is only the first leg of a massive Jackson County highway project that has been discussed for about 30 years.

Known by a variety of names, the most recent of which is the Lewis and Clark Expressway, the four-lane road would head north through eastern Independence and unincorporated Jackson County before turning left and heading west through Sugar Creek and northeast Kansas City.

Finally, the Little Blue Parkway project represents something not yet quantifiable to area planners. When the four-lane parkway is completed north through to U.S. 24, it will offer a new path through the Little Blue Valley. That is the largely undeveloped district of perhaps 32 square miles that some Independence officials have estimated could attract 20,000 residents within 20 years, and also be home to perhaps 5,000 new jobs.

Meanwhile, planners in Independence and many other Kansas City area municipalities have submitted their own lists of public works initiatives that could be funded by any available stimulus money.

Last week, the Mid-America Regional Council issued a final call for such projects.

The stimulus funds being discussed, Powell said, “could present opportunities to do some things that we might not otherwise have been able to do. If we are fortunate enough to get some stimulus money, we have other phases of the Little Blue Parkway and Jackson Drive that we could build this year.”

But, he added, “I don’t think that there will be something for everybody. Maybe two or three percent of the things that are on that list may end up getting funding.”

Much of the money driving the Jackson Drive extension was designated in the Centerpoint Medical Center tax increment financing package, approved in 2004. The sometimes-emotional dialogue that preceded the agreement’s approval often concerned the closing of two existing Independence hospitals upon the opening of the new medical center in 2007.

Residents of northwestern Independence worried about having to navigate East 39th Street to get to the new hospital in eastern Independence. The Jackson Drive extension, city officials have said, will offer new access to medical care.

The first phase of that Jackson Drive extension is scheduled to be completed this spring. The parkway’s first phase should be done by the fall.

Ribbons will be cut accordingly, Powell said.