Trolley Trail Bridge Bollards

When I began working with the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) as the Armour Hills Homes Association liaison, there was a laundry list of projects that we came up with along our portion of the Trolley Trail between 65th Street and Gregory Boulevard. One of those projects was the replacement of the light bollards for the underpass of the Trolley Trail bridge located at the end of Edgevale Road at Brookside Road.

After a lot of negotiation and cost estimating, it was determined that it would be cheaper and faster to simply remove all the lights, which had a long history of deferred maintenance and vandalism, and replace them with bollards. We all decided that the light under the bridge was sufficient.

The KCATA took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather this month and replaced the standing lights with regular bollards. With all the landscaping recently completed along the trail (another one of our requests), the bridge is looking on the up and up. In the long-run, however, the bridge will need to be repaired. You can see its deterioration in the photos.

Bus Stop Bench

Unbeknownst to many who live along the Trolley Trail, the entire 150 feet right-of-way is owned by the Kansas City Transit Authority (KCATA). While there are some parking lots, signage, and other uses on the trail, all of these uses must register and pay a fee to KCATA.

So when the new Metro Area Express (MAX) bus began service to downtown Kansas City, I would walk my wife to the nearest stop at 65th Street and Wornall Road. What I noticed was that while there was a trash can and a blank pad, there was not a place to sit. Other stops along the Trolley Trail in our neighborhood had benches, but this stop directly across from the now operating and commuter heavy Southwest High School had virtually no amenities.

After a quick call to the KCATA, they had a team out to survey the site, and the bench was installed within a week. Now if they could only change the rate of service that quickly...