Few would argue better transportation routes linking Leavenworth with Kansas City International Airport and downtown Kansas City area are needed.
There is no direct route to either, and no matter which way you go there’ll be plenty of travel time on either two-lane roads or busy city streets.
The need for better highway routes is especially important considering the amount of traffic coming through the area for Fort Leavenworth, which alone should make the situation a priority.
For years most area officials have backed a plan that would create a four-lane highway over the Missouri River bridge on the north end of Leavenworth that fed directly to the airport.
It’s a great plan and we’d all love to see it happen, but it’s been nothing more than a good idea for decades and is going nowhere. The biggest stumbling block is it relies on Missouri officials to support and help finance the project, and that is unlikely to ever happen when that state has much greater road priorities, such as Interstate 70.
County Commissioner J.C. Tellefson has been advocating a new highway plan that would use K-5 as a base, that would connect to Interstate 435 all the way to U.S. 73 just west of Fort Leavenworth.
Leavenworth County made a plan connecting K-5 to I-435 a priority in its comprehensive plan approved in 2008, but what makes Tellefson’s version even better is it would connect the post, northern part of Leavenworth and even the counties and areas to the north and west with a direct route to the metro area.
Like the plan that goes across the Missouri River through Platte City and to the airport, this plan would cost $35 to $40 million dollars, but the proposal is reliant only on Kansas highway money.
This proposal is further relevant because the Kansas Department of Transportation is getting ready to start holding public forums, the first scheduled in September, on how to spend some $8.5 billion in highway funds generated by taxes. KDOT is looking for public input on which projects it should prioritize.
Local officials in Leavenworth, Lansing (we hear Mayor Ken Bernard is already on board with this plan) and Fort Leavenworth should get together and form one voice in support of this proposal, and local state represntatives, or candidates, should get on board as well.
If a highway plan across the bridge suddenly gets wings, then great, we would all support that, but the community should not just wait for a lottery ticket to come from Missouri, and instead, get behind a plan in which it can control. A direct route from 73 to 435 would have a great positive impact for the community.
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Few would argue better transportation routes linking Leavenworth with Kansas City International Airport and downtown Kansas City area are needed.
There is no direct route to either, and no matter which way you go there’ll be plenty of travel time on either two-lane roads or busy city streets.
The need for better highway routes is especially important considering the amount of traffic coming through the area for Fort Leavenworth, which alone should make the situation a priority.
For years most area officials have backed a plan that would create a four-lane highway over the Missouri River bridge on the north end of Leavenworth that fed directly to the airport.
It’s a great plan and we’d all love to see it happen, but it’s been nothing more than a good idea for decades and is going nowhere. The biggest stumbling block is it relies on Missouri officials to support and help finance the project, and that is unlikely to ever happen when that state has much greater road priorities, such as Interstate 70.
County Commissioner J.C. Tellefson has been advocating a new highway plan that would use K-5 as a base, that would connect to Interstate 435 all the way to U.S. 73 just west of Fort Leavenworth.
Leavenworth County made a plan connecting K-5 to I-435 a priority in its comprehensive plan approved in 2008, but what makes Tellefson’s version even better is it would connect the post, northern part of Leavenworth and even the counties and areas to the north and west with a direct route to the metro area.
Like the plan that goes across the Missouri River through Platte City and to the airport, this plan would cost $35 to $40 million dollars, but the proposal is reliant only on Kansas highway money.
This proposal is further relevant because the Kansas Department of Transportation is getting ready to start holding public forums, the first scheduled in September, on how to spend some $8.5 billion in highway funds generated by taxes. KDOT is looking for public input on which projects it should prioritize.
Local officials in Leavenworth, Lansing (we hear Mayor Ken Bernard is already on board with this plan) and Fort Leavenworth should get together and form one voice in support of this proposal, and local state represntatives, or candidates, should get on board as well.
If a highway plan across the bridge suddenly gets wings, then great, we would all support that, but the community should not just wait for a lottery ticket to come from Missouri, and instead, get behind a plan in which it can control. A direct route from 73 to 435 would have a great positive impact for the community.
