Summary of N. Scott Corridor Improvements

Belton, MO

Contact Information

Organization: Belton, MO
Contact person: Greg Rokos
Title: Public Works Director
Phone: (816) 892-1269
E-mail: grokos@belton.org
Organization address: 506 Main Street
  Belton, MO    64012


Pre-Application Information

PA Project title/name: N. Scott Corridor Improvements
PA Agency type: City
PA Agency Name: Belton, MO
PA Primary project mode: Roadway
PA Secondary project mode: Bike/Pedestrian
PA Project type: Road & Bridge - Roadway Operations
PA Project description: The project is on N. Scott from 155th Street to MO 58 Highway. This roadway is old Route 71 before there was a dual highway. It was constructed and operated as a state highway that bisected Belton. Now the street serves as an arterial in the City connecting homes, jobs, and retail. The main mode of transportation for the corridor is vehicle, but now with this project it will open the street to pedestrian and bike traffic. The City is also working with KCATA to get bus service along the corridor. This will make the corridor a true multi-modal street. With the addition of landscaping and green solutions, it will also be a complete street design.
PA Connected KC 2050 Project Number: No
PA Connected KC 2050 underlying strategies selected
PA Strategies Description: The primary reason to improve corridors is to focus energy around key activity centers and connect them to neighborhoods to promote livable, vibrant, resilient, and adaptable places. Strong centers and corridors serve vulnerable populations and can help ensure equal access. This is the goal of activity center and corridors as presented in the 2050 plan and that is the exact goal of the project. The planning study does show redevelopment of the corridor to allow for more industrial but also includes more medium to high residential. Although this is the plan, the current demographics have an underserved population that can benefit from greater transportation options. With the addition of bike lanes and continuous sidewalks, the citizens would be able to access more places. This would foster a stronger community. The current condition is poor in this area. This improvement will both help the transportation, and improve the quality of life. Building the project with complete streets in mind, and additions of green strips and street trees along with the preparation for bus shelters will allow for equitable access to goods and services and a better quality of life.
PA Complete Streets Description: The proposed project would include the preparations for bus shelters for the corridor in anticipation of bus service being provided. The City of Belton is working on a plan to start bringing bus service to Cass County. The north half of the project would have a road diet from 4-lanes to 2-lanes with a continuous left turn lane. This reconfiguration will provide on-street bicycle lanes. Sidewalks will be rehabilitated and any gaps will be closed so that a continuous sidewalk will be provided on both sides of the roadway. This will improve nonmotorized transportation.
PA Safety: The conversion on the north half of the project from 4-lanes to 2-lanes with a continuous left turn lane will reduce the likelihood of rear-end accidents. On a 4-lanes section, vehicles that are stopped in a through lane while waiting to make a left turn risk the possibility of rear-end collisions from a distracted driver. The continuous left turn lane provides a refuse area for that vehicle, out of the way of through traffic, while it waits to make the left turn. Further, any fixed objects adjacent to the roadway will be evaluated to determine if they can be eliminated, protected, or moved.
PA Air Quality: This project will promote pedestrian, bike, and transit-friendly options for this corridor by introducing bike lanes and continuous sidewalks through the entire project area. The project will also promote best practices in native and sustainable landscaping and green infrastructure as added green areas along the roadway are installed with trees. The N. Scott Corridor Plan promotes green buildings and sustainable site design. One of the other keys to the project is to promote transportation connectivity. This area is SOV, and the plan allows for multi-modal transportation.
PA Conservation: As part of the N. Scott Corridor Plan, the recommendations include narrowing the lanes and placing a green buffer in the street. The green buffer can be used as a BMP to capture the water and both reduce the total runoff and improve the water quality. This is also just a part of the planning study that shows a lot of redevelopment in the area. The redevelopment area calls for reduction of impervious areas to allow for more infiltration of surface water and even more opportunity to have water quality measures installed. The whole plan put together will improve the watershed.
PA Environment: Part of the planning study that was completed outlined the need for a green strip on the street and also planting street trees. Both of these improvements will reduce the heat island by first reducing the amount of pavement and second by shading the street that remains. This will also promote more infiltration of water into the green stripes and tree wells. This will protect the public against flooding in the area that is below the street. This program is also just the beginning of the plan. With this improvement, more redevelopment of the corridor will occur without the heat island.
PA Funding
CMAQ
STP/STBG
TAP/STP Set Aside
PA Travel Lane: False
PA Congestion Management Measures Selected:
Access Management:
Active Transportation
Highway
Land Use
Parking
Regulatory>
TDM
Transit
Transportation Operations and Management
PA CMT Description: This project is simple yet uses many of the strategies of the Congestion Management Toolbox. N. Scott is an older street that did not have access management when it was constructed and still lacks any principals of access management. Part of the design of this project is to combine entrances and limit access to the street. Currently there are many driveways that are from one end of the property to the other end, and abut the next properties access. This project will limit the number of driveways by combining and building better designed entrances. The addition of the turn lanes through the entire length of the project will reduce accidents at the intersections and improve safety. Adding bike lanes, and building a continuous sidewalk along the entire project will promote bike/ped use in the area. Belton is submitting a PSP grant to look at bus coverage and providing a circulator in the city. This project is being designed to accommodate bus shelters in the future.
PA SOV Capacity: We are not adding SOV in this project. The project is designed to eliminate SOV and promote bicycle and pedestrian modes of traffic. We are also looking at how to add bus shelter for future bus service in the area.
PA Pre-application Statement: No changes made
PA Pre-application Statement Text:
PA Pre-Application Staff Alignment:
PA Pre-Aplication Policy Concerns:

General Information

G1. TIP Number:
G2. State: Missouri
G3. Multiple agencies / jurisdictions? No
G4 Project contact: Gregory J. Rokos, Public Works Director. I am a considered a responsible person with MoDOT.
G5 Purpose and need: There are many purposes and needs for the project. The purpose of the project replace infrastructure that has exceeded is useful life, but replace it with infrastructure that meet the current days needs of multi-modal transportation and green infrastructure. This roadway was constructed by MoDOT over 50 years ago with the focus being highway traffic. It will now serve vehicle traffic with bikes, and pedestrian traffic. The original design did not consider water quality and quantity. There was also no consideration given to adding trees and other plantings to reduce the heat island. The new infrastructure will consider and implement these solutions in the new infrastructure. The project will also provide a direct connection from the disadvantaged population in Belton to grocery stores, pharmacies and jobs.
 
G6. Origin and ending
  Route:
  From:
  To:
  Length (Miles):
N. Scott
155th street
Route 58
2.00000
G7 Functional Classification: Major Collector
G8 Connected KC 2050 Decade? --Select--
G9 Muli-Agency Plan? No
G10 Included in a CIP? Yes
This project has been considered a major project for the City of Belton. The City of Belton has conducted a planning study to determine the purpose and need for the new roadway. This includes more than just the roadway, but the use of the adjoining property and look and feel of the area. The city has longed for redevelopment, and this project wold be the first piece of the change.
G11 Planning stage: Final Plan
G12 Reviewed by state DOT? No
G13 Right-of-Way acquisition: All acquired or none needed
G14 ROW by local public agency process manual? Yes
G15 Other unique local goals and objectives? No
G16 Transportation Disadvantaged Population: On the north end of the project are two manufactured home subdivisions. These are both low-income, and zero-car households. This project will provide bike lanes and pedestrian connections. To the north is a trail across 155 street that provides access to jobs in the Port Authority. The bike lanes and sidewalks provide connection to food and medicine. This will be a great positive impact to the residents along the project.
G17 Relevant Public Engagement: The City of Belton identified and selected members of the community to serve on an Advisory Committee for the duration of the study effort. The purpose of the committee was to serve as a resource for the planning team to identify issues along the corridor, to evaluate concepts and options and to provide direction and input to the overall plan. The public had three opportunities to review and give input in the process. The initial meeting was a Visioning Workshop. It was a workshop that provided the citizens of Belton to express their thoughts and concerns for the future of N. Scott Corridor. They went through three different exercises to and input on the project. The first exercise was looking at over 300 images and voting with dots to determine what they liked. These images were divided into three categories, Development Character, Amenities and Connectivity, and Streetscape Character. The second exercise had 68 questions to answer about the corridor. The last exercise was to divide into small groups to get ideas and concepts about the corridor. The second opportunity was an online where the previous input was shown for public viewing. This was also an opportunity to get more public input on the plan. Lastly, there was another public meeting held where more final direction and input was given by the citizens of Belton. This long process was done to get a full input form the citizens of how they wanted the corridor to look and feel in the future. When all this was completed, it was then placed into a final North Scott Corridor Plan. This project is based upon the findings in the plan.
G18 Planned Public Engagement: Since the plan was approved in 2014, there has not been a lot of follow up. With the lack of funding, implementation has been minimal. It takes one group to start the process and it will domino into everyone following. This project has the potential to start the process of redevelopment and change to the corridor.
G19 Sustainable Places Criteria: Access to Healthy Foods---Active Transportation/Living-------Compact, Walkable Centers--- Complete Street Design---Connected Street Network---Context Appropriate Streets---Diverse Housing Types--- ----Green Infrastructure---Infill-Rehab Housing---Integrated Trail System--- Mixed-Density Neighborhoods---Natural Resources Protection-------Pedestrian-Oriented Public Realm--- ----Repair Strip Corridors---Retail/Rooftop Relationships---Strong Suburban Downtown--- Transit-Ready Corridors-----
G19.1 Describe PSP relationship: To explain in a few words, this improvement makes connections to two trails and many local businesses. With this improvement, It will allow low income, transportation challenged people to have access to trails, jobs, and shopping. It will also connects with downtown Belton. The improvement will be made to incorporate transit when it becomes available. The overall plans calls for an overlay district to control the look and feel of new businesses and redeveloped one so they all fit the central theme of the corridor.
G20 Implements Sustainable Places Initiatives? Yes
The planning study from 2014 was completed just as the concept of Planning Sustainable Places had begun. The planning study is called North Scott Corridor Plan. The original study was started by a student intern and then completed by a local consultant. The study began by looking at the basics of economic development, but then moved to look at green solutions and complete streets. As more redevelopment occurs, there are opportunities to improve water quality, flooding, and reducing the heat islands while continuing to use green solutions.
G21 Serves Regional Activity Center? Yes
High-Intensity and More_Walkable Centers If you look on the activity centers map, you will see that this project is n the middle of an activity center. It is a moderately dense activity center and the improvements will allow for bike/ped transportation in and around the activity center.
G22 Environmental justice tracts? Yes
This project northern terminus is at an environmental justice tract. The project will allow those in Belton to have access to the environmental justice tract. Currently there is limited connectivity if you are not in a car. The plan allows for pedestrian, bike, transit and vehicular traffic.
G23 Reduces greenhouse gas emissions? Yes
The project will reduce greenhouse gasses, and use of carbon based fuels. By creating pathways for bike and pedestrians, it will allow people to chose to walk instead of drive. If will encourage bike/ped transportation as an option that is not there presently.
G24 Natural Resource information: Along the corridor, there is limited BMPs and water quality measures. This project will allow for water quality to be installed in the inlets to improve water quality in the streams.
G25 Community Links at Watershaed Scale: The overall plan will change the runoff and the effects to Kansas City and then Grandview. Overall, the plan will create detention and green space to reduce the heat island and a small lake to conserve the water resource in the area. The lake will be able to hold water to reduce flooding in nearby communities.
G26 Explain local land use or comprehensive plans: This project is based on the North Scott Corridor Plan.
 

Project Financial Information

STP Federal amount: 1715872 
STP Match amount: 428968 
STP Year requested: --Select--
Source of Local Match: From our street preservation dollars. It is a local sales tax. Also, all engineering will be completed with in-house staff. That is why there is not any engineering costs.
 
Explain:
 
Scope Change: There is a natural break in the middle of the project that could be used to divide the project. But to get the connectivity, the whole project should be created at one time.
 
Cost by area:
Engineering: 0
Equipment Purchase: 0
Right-of-Way: 0
Other: 0
Utility Adjustment/Relocation: 0
Program Implementation/Construction (including Construction Engineering/Inspection): 2044840
Contingency: 100000
Total Estimated Project Cost: 2144840
 
Cost Breakdown by mode:
Highway: 20  %
Transit:   %
Bike: 45  %
Pedestrian: 35  %
Other:   %

Supporting Documents

No public comments submitted.


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