KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With tens of thousands of cars crossing the Buck O'Neil Bridge every day, the Missouri Department of Transportation wants to make sure it gets as much public input on how to improve the bridge as possible.
Earlier this year, MoDOT held a public meeting on 13 to 15 different options on changes and improvements to the bridge.
After analyzing the transportation needs and public input, options were narrowed down to four for the $200 million dollar project.
MoDOT is holding an online public meeting and survey to discuss those options, which range from not building a new bridge at all to building a new structure that would move the location of the bridge.
"It really helps us decide the direction," MoDOT Transportation Planning Coordinator Mike Landvic said. "I mean this public feedback we're going to get, along with impacts to the environment, cost, impacts to traffic — it's going to help us decide the ultimate design of the bridge."
Landvic said the online aspect allows MoDOT to receive a wide variety of input, as people answer 14 questions in the comfort of their home.
"It's a lot more innovative," Landvic said. "We go to the people instead of them coming to us at a certain time and a certain place and this gives them about a month to watch the 15-minute video."
He said the more people who fill out the survey, the better.
"We'll really know if we're starting to see a pattern, if we missed something, or if people overwhelmingly like one alternative over the other. Or they don't like closures, that'll help them," Landvic said. "What closures are you concerned about? Closures during construction? Are you concerned about certain connections to I-35 and other city street systems? We're just trying to figure out what is most important to the people."
The survey will be open for about a month. Then MoDOT will collect that feedback and present their findings at a public meeting at the end of the year.
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