2023 Crown Communities Award winner: City turns one-way frontage road into a two-way economic boon

There’s more than one way to make a one-way road into a two-way, something the City of Grandview, Mo., demonstrated with great success when it added two-way traffic to a frontage road connected to the bustling Interstate 49. The project not only improved traffic flow, but it also revitalized a business area that had long been in decline.

The $15 million project spanned 5.5 miles of road and included introducing three roundabouts in Grandview, a first-tier suburb of Kansas City. The project was unique in that it was completed using a design-build construction process, as opposed to the more typical design-bid-build process, a factor Grandview Public Works Director Doug Wesselschmidt credits as one of the keys for its success. Completed in 2022, the project has since received numerous accolades, including AC&C’s 2023 Crown Communities Award.

The road back to 1980

It isn’t the first time this particular frontage road was open to two-way traffic. In 1980, the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) transitioned the road from two-way to one-way due to safety issues it was experiencing. However, the switch caused businesses along the stretch of road to take a hit.

“When MoDOT took these two-way frontage roads and turned them into one-way frontage roads, they ended up just being auxiliary lanes to the interstate highway,” Wesselschmidt says. “So, while that moves a lot of traffic along the interstate highway, that’s not conducive to commercial development, retail development or restaurants.”

With the one-way frontage roads as they were, if you were at a business and wanted to visit a business to the left, it required making a right on the frontage road and driving all around the interstate just to get next door. As a result, while traffic still flowed onto the highway, the corridor in Grandview went into an economic downward spiral, with businesses departing until the area consisted of mostly used car and trailer lots.

Time for a change in direction

When Missouri’s U.S. 71 officially became part of Interstate 49 in 2012, Grandview knew it had to take advantage of the corridor. The booming I-49 connects Grandview not only with Kansas City, but also with Bentonville, Ark., where Walmart’s headquarters and many of its suppliers are stationed. With more than 90,000 vehicles passing by each day, the outer roads had huge potential for Grandview businesses.

The city began the process of securing $15 million in funding—$11.5 million from MoDOT and federal funding and $3.9 million from the city—to reverse the 1980 decision and open the roads back up to two-way traffic. The effort had been underway for several years before Wesselschmidt signed as on public works director to see it to completion.

Finding flexibility in the design-build process

One of the methods that set the project apart from prior city projects with federal funding was the design-build procurement process, in which one team was responsible for the design and construction.

“As far as the advantage of the design build process, you’re selecting a design-build team that are going to work together, not against each other, and it’s a qualification-best selection process, as opposed to just the lowest bidder,” Wesselschmidt says.

The process also allowed for more innovation throughout the duration of the project. For example, it was the design-build team that suggested installing a third roundabout instead of two traffic signals the city originally had planned. “We liked the roundabout idea better,” Wesselschmidt says.

Alterations to the roads included changing the striping to two-way and widening intersections for left and right turn lanes. Two of the six-leg roundabouts were built without traffic on them, but the third roundabout proposed by the design-built team had to be constructed while maintaining traffic going through it. “That certainly took a lot of phasing and a lot of planning by our design-build team,” Wesselschmidt says.

Improving traffic flow and safety

The project not only opened opportunities for the thousands of drivers who traverse through the corridor every day, it altered driving through Grandview’s Main Street, improving traffic flow and safety. Whereas Main Street could become backed up for blocks during rush hour, the Main Street roundabout enables a steady flow as drivers choose to access I-49, the outer roads or Main Street itself.

“In this particular case, the roundabout moves much more traffic more efficiently than two traffic signals, and much safer, because if there is going to be any collision between two vehicles, it’s usually just a transfer of paint,” Wesselschmidt says. “You rarely have injury accidents in a roundabout because traffic is moving at a slower speed, usually 15–20 miles an hour, and it’s all in a counterclockwise direction.”

Paving the way for business

Just as the roads reverted back to two-way frontage roads, a corridor that had been in a slow economic decline for 40 years is gradually reverting back to a hot spot for Grandview businesses. In the year and a half since the ribbon cutting, the area has seen the development of nine new businesses, including a hotel and a flagship convenience store. There has also been an influx of restaurants, such as Whataburger, which is owned by Kansas City Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

“It was 40 years of decline, so it’s going to take some years for that to reverse, but we’re already seeing a lot of interest and getting good retail and restaurant development on this corridor,” Wesselschmidt says.

A new chapter for Grandview

One of the most challenging aspects of the job, as with many major public projects, was simply the changes it entailed for drivers. There were a number of comments from locals initially about preferring the roads as they were, and Wesselschmidt and his team worked hard from start to completion to communicate the potential benefits the project could bring about for the city. And as time has gone on, as businesses have sprouted and traffic has flowed through the roundabouts, Wesselschmidt says it’s hard for many to remember what it was like before the one-way roads were reverted to two-way. But those involved behind the scenes still take a certain amount of pride in the work and innovation that achieved that positive outcome for the area.

“Even today, I’ll monitor how the roundabout is doing and seeing how well that works,” Wesselschmidt says. “There’s some satisfaction in knowing that wasn’t part of the original plan, but through this design-build process, it allowed some outside ideas to be brought in that proved to be very worthy.”