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Each year brings with it anticipated projects that are either beginning or finishing. Below are the Top 5 most anticipated projects in the area for 2012.
5. Little Blue Trace extension.
County leaders call the trail “a gem” in the county park system, and hopefully it will get even more sparkle this year.
County officials are hoping to put out to bid this year a project that would extend the trail approximately a mile at Lee’s Summit Road, heading southwest along the river.
“A parking lot would also be put in place, most likely around Phelps Road,” said Bruce Wilke, landscape architect for the county parks department.
Wilke said planners are in the early stages right now.
“There’s no definite time frame,” he said. “But everyone is trying to get it out to bid this year.”
4. Woods Chapel Road in Blue Springs.
Residents in the western end of Blue Springs have been desperate for some kind of infrastructure improvements throughout the years, and in 2012 they’ll see the start of what promises to be a significant improvement.
Work on phase one of the project, which includes the diamond interchange at the Woods Chapel Road area at Interstate 70 to Castle Drive, is expected to begin in the spring and finish two years later. With phase two, construction will begin in 2013 and finish in 2014.
What the city calls a “key junction” of the phase two corridor is the roundabout, which will be located at Woods Chapel Road and Walnut Street. Meant to distribute traffic through a circle with eight stress points (where accidents could occur), it’s a key component to a corridor that sees as many as 26,000 cars per day. By 2030, that figure could increase to as many as 40,800 per day.
Chris Sandie, assistant director of the city’s public works department, called the system “effortless” and one that will move traffic quickly and efficiently.
“It will greatly improve that area,” Sandie said.
Now if only that area of town could get a grocery store.
3. New schools in Independence
Work progresses on the construction of the new east and west elementary schools in Independence.
Superintendent Jim Hinson said this week that excavating work at the west school at the southeast corner of North Forest Street and Silver Lane in Sugar Creek could begin in March.
As for the east elementary school, which sits along Holke Road just south of Missouri 78 and the MCC-Blue River campus, school officials expect it to be complete this summer.
Each year brings with it anticipated projects that are either beginning or finishing. Below are the Top 5 most anticipated projects in the area for 2012.
5. Little Blue Trace extension.
County leaders call the trail “a gem” in the county park system, and hopefully it will get even more sparkle this year.
County officials are hoping to put out to bid this year a project that would extend the trail approximately a mile at Lee’s Summit Road, heading southwest along the river.
“A parking lot would also be put in place, most likely around Phelps Road,” said Bruce Wilke, landscape architect for the county parks department.
Wilke said planners are in the early stages right now.
“There’s no definite time frame,” he said. “But everyone is trying to get it out to bid this year.”
4. Woods Chapel Road in Blue Springs.
Residents in the western end of Blue Springs have been desperate for some kind of infrastructure improvements throughout the years, and in 2012 they’ll see the start of what promises to be a significant improvement.
Work on phase one of the project, which includes the diamond interchange at the Woods Chapel Road area at Interstate 70 to Castle Drive, is expected to begin in the spring and finish two years later. With phase two, construction will begin in 2013 and finish in 2014.
What the city calls a “key junction” of the phase two corridor is the roundabout, which will be located at Woods Chapel Road and Walnut Street. Meant to distribute traffic through a circle with eight stress points (where accidents could occur), it’s a key component to a corridor that sees as many as 26,000 cars per day. By 2030, that figure could increase to as many as 40,800 per day.
Chris Sandie, assistant director of the city’s public works department, called the system “effortless” and one that will move traffic quickly and efficiently.
“It will greatly improve that area,” Sandie said.
Now if only that area of town could get a grocery store.
3. New schools in Independence
Work progresses on the construction of the new east and west elementary schools in Independence.
Superintendent Jim Hinson said this week that excavating work at the west school at the southeast corner of North Forest Street and Silver Lane in Sugar Creek could begin in March.
As for the east elementary school, which sits along Holke Road just south of Missouri 78 and the MCC-Blue River campus, school officials expect it to be complete this summer.
2. Children’s Mercy East
Planners and supporters for Children’s Mercy East, at Interstate 70 and Little Blue Parkway, broke ground on the new building in June 2011.
The three-story building of 55,000 square feet will offer pediatric subspecialty outpatient clinics; The Edward G. and Kathryn E. Mader Urgent Care Center for after-hours urgent care needs; and radiology and laboratory services.
It’s designed to serve the children and families of Eastern Jackson County, Independence, Lee’s Summit and Blue Springs.
The facility is expected to open in 2013.
In fiscal year 2010, more than 22,000 children from Eastern Jackson County made more than 75,000 visits to Children’s Mercy, an average of 207 per day and an increase of nearly 10 percent from fiscal year 2009, according to information provided by the hospital.
Eastern Jackson County children accounted for 12 percent of all ER/urgent care visits and 14 percent of all inpatient discharges.
1. Independence Animal Shelter
News just in!
As of Friday, the new Independence Animal Shelter is projected to open in mid-June.
Larry Jones, health director at the Independence Health Department, said workers are ahead of schedule and the new shelter just east of MCC-Blue River on Missouri 78 will open ahead of schedule, due in part to the weather.
“Just had a meeting this morning about it and found out,” Jones said Friday.
The new facility will be more than three times the size of the current shelter.
“Our existing facility is a good facility,” Jones said. “In its time it was a great facility, it’s just not a place you keep animals in anymore.”
The new $5 million facility will have room to house about 125 cats and more than 100 dogs. Separate areas will serve a quarantine areas for sick animals.
