(rshsdepot) Kansas City, MO

["Jim Dent" <james.dent_@_itochu.com>]

-From the Kansas City Star via Bernie Wagenblast...

Union Station, Freight House get pedestrian bridge, seek city's aid
Jim Davis   Staff Writer

Imagine walking across a pedestrian bridge spanning
the railroad tracks between Union Station and the Freight House District.
Union Station CEO Turner White hopes to provide that link. He's even found a
bridge. It's owned by Kansas City Southern Railway and extends under the
south end of the Broadway Bridge.

The railroad has agreed to donate the bridge, which hasn't been used for
about a decade. The Kansas City Terminal Railway Co. will grant air rights
over its tracks. And the owner of Freight House District property where the
bridge would land said he wants to make the project work.

"It seems to me it's the city's turn to step up," White said.

Now, White said, he needs money to clean the bridge and install pylons to
anchor the trestle. He wants the city to pay for a walkway connecting the
bridge to Wyandotte Street.

No budget has been set. Gary Sage, president of business development at the
Economic Development Corp. of Kansas City, said he's confident that state
and
federal money can be secured.

The Main Street overpass is designed for vehicles. The proposed bridge would
increase pedestrian traffic between Union Station and the district's growing
collection of restaurants and art galleries, creating a connection that
doesn't exist now.

White said the bridge also would support a key concept in the Downtown
Corridor Development Strategy that was prepared by Sasaki Associates of
Watertown, Mass.

"Never before has there been as much willingness to talk concretely," he
said. "Never before has there been the willingness to do something."

This timeliness is underscored by a walking tour that Kansas City Mayor Kay
Barnes led July 20 of the Freight House District and the surrounding area
extending to the proposed performing arts center south of Bartle Hall.
Joe Serviss, Barnes' chief of staff, said she wants to promote the kind of
connection that was provided by the enclosed skywalk between Crown Center
and
Union Station that opened in May 2000.

But it's too early to talk about whether the city will provide money for the
proposed bridge, Serviss said.

Dan Clothier, whose group owns the parking lot where the bridge would go,
said he thinks a deal can be struck. Clothier said he would be willing to
give up a few parking spaces, provided he gets input into the bridge's
design.

The 16-foot-wide bridge, built in 1892, is 22 feet tall and would rise an
additional 22 feet above the tracks, offering dramatic views of the rail
yard.

"It would be a destination in itself," White said.

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