Friday, May. 09, 2008

Bob Sight wants to close Blue Parkway

By Miranda Wycoff

The Journal Staff

Traffic could soon be diverted from Blue Parkway south of Chipman Road. During the Lee’s Summit City Council meeting on Thursday, Bob Sight Ford requested that the portion of Blue Parkway in front of the business be closed so the construction at the car dealership can be completed. Tom Sight told the Council that Aquila could not finish its work to complete the construction to be complete until the road is shut down. Sight said the road also needs to be shut down as soon as possible because the further into the summer months, and the warmer the weather, the work may not be able to be completed until the fall because the transmission lines carry so much electrical power in the summer months. “If we cannot divert the traffic, this scenario would come into play because it would be until July before we had the road through the south side of the lot (completed), which means the snow could fly before I could totally be done (with the construction),” Sight stated in a letter to the city. Sight said detouring traffic would allow the road to be built along the south side of the building and the west side of the project to be completed at the same time. This would allow him to move into the new building in mid-July, when the building is scheduled to be completed. Sight requested to the Council that the portion of Blue Parkway be closed and traffic diverted to N.W. Park Lane, Libby Lane and N.W. Penny Lane by May 27 for a period no longer than seven weeks. The Council was about to vote on a motion that would have approved the request until Lee’s Summit Traffic Engineer Michael Parks spoke about some concerns. Parks said the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority is strongly opposed to the closure. He said they would not be able to maneuver their buses along the detour route, as the street widths are smaller. Thus, they would have to detour to Third Street. Parks said the KCATA has discussed the possibility of charging more to the city if this were to occur. “If KCATA wants to charge us, I suggest that before next week they get their act together and get back to our staff,” said Mayor Karen Messerli. The Council agreed to give staff a week to gather more information on the traffic concerns presented before moving forward with the motion to approve the request by Bob Sight Ford and amend the contracts.