Improvements along Kansas Highway 7 may be necessary down the line to deal with increased traffic on Shawnee’s growing western side, but a new study of that major transportation corridor shows that its capacity is adequate for now.
Specific areas to keep an eye on, according to a special presentation to the Shawnee City Council Monday, are around westbound 55th Street, westbound 67th Street, eastbound Shawnee Mission Parkway and stretches of K-7 itself.
Those roads will need to be focused on as that part of the city continues to grow and is built out, Kurt Rotering, from Olsson Associates, said.
Right now, K-7’s ability to handle traffic is sufficient
- Earlier this week, the city council did not take any action on future projects to deal with K-7 capacity.
- Council president Eric Jenkins noted during the council committee meeting that the presentation offered “the kind of information we really need” to better understand growth out west and the impact it could have on traffic in the area.
- “We had no facts at hand, it’s kind of hard to address those issues when you don’t really have a starting point or a concept of where we stand,” he said.
75th Street project could help K-7 traffic flow
- Rotering said such a project could remedy some traffic flow concerns on 67th Street and Shawnee Mission Parkway in west Shawnee as well as 83rd Street in Lenexa along the K-7 corridor.
- There are already joint plans with the Kansas Department of Transportation to upgrade the interchange at 75th Street and add something — possibly an interchange or bridge — at 71st Street and K-7 sometime in the future.
- The prevailing thought is 75th Street could someday have a diverging diamond interchange design, though it’s unfunded at this stage and nothing is official.
- A higher-volume interchange at 75th and K-7 is also a focal point of the Hickok-Zarah incentive district concept plan, which aims to add homes and retail space to an undeveloped area.
Other traffic improvements in the area may be required
- There was also some discussion of widening Shawnee Mission Parkway through that stretch of the city to three lanes for both directions of traffic — as it is east of Widmer Road.
- The study also found improvements to the more rural areas of Woodland Road could help improve capacity in the corridor.
- The Gleason Road buildout, already in design, could help relieve some of the pressure on 55th Street.
- The K-7 corridor study also identified some future improvement needed around the 83rd Street exit in Lenexa, which Rotering called a potential “relief valve” for K-10 as development in De Soto booms.
There’s no set timeline on Shawnee K-7 projects
- Nothing is set in stone, but some of these projects could show up in future capital improvement project priority lists, deputy public works director Kevin Manning said.
- “Obviously, some of these projects are going to take some time,” councilmember Angela Stiens said.
- Manning said “funding really is the key,” noting that many of the projects, if they are eventually approved, will be costly.
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