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.

Crosswalk Stripping

Since I became the City Liaison for the Armour Hills Homes Association, I have had the opportunity to work closely with the City's 4th District Councilmembers, in particular Councilwoman Jan Marcason and her staff. This exposure has brought great insights into the City, local politics, and for the purpose of this blog, the delivery of goods and services.

When I was working with the 4th District on their 2010 Public Improvements Advisory Committee (PIAC) grants, they mentioned a pot of money for crosswalk stripping. I had several ideas. At the 2010 Armour Hills Homes Association annual meeting, many of our members expressed safety concerns on Brookside Road. All of our members must cross Brookside Road to access the Trolley Trail.

I wrote a list of all the crossings in our district (from 65th Street to Gregory on Brooskide Road) as well as the speed bumps on Main Street and the crossing for Arbor Villa Park on 66th Terrace at Main Street, and they are now on the list. The crews came out last week to paint the speed bumps on Main Street and Edgevale Road yesterday, and they are back today to finish all of our requested crosswalks.