David Hutchins gingerly makes his way across Mill Street in Kansas City, Missouri's, Westport area, tapping his blue cane in front of him as he goes. Hutchins goes to The Big Biscuit at 4039 Mill Street on a regular basis, but the seemingly endless construction, the carved-out curbs, sidewalks and parking lots impede his ability to safely navigate the route as a person with a visual impairment. He’s learned the number of steps it takes to get from his apartment across the street to his breakfast place, but now his route has changed.
“It's kind of annoying to go through this stuff,” said Hutchins. “I’d walk through here, and the sidewalk here didn’t match with the sidewalk (there) and now I’m kind of out in the street.”
Hutchins isn’t the only one upset with the construction. Not far from The Big Biscuit, Tony Teng, the general manager of the New Peking Restaurant, said a month of construction has seemed like an eternity. It’s negatively affected his business.
“You don’t get through a whole day without a customer complaining how hard it is to get here,” said Teng. “Even when we get our restaurant supplies like the meat and the produce and things like that, they’re having a hard time."
Teng said his foot traffic has decreased further since the Stormwater Project began tearing up the area.
Running water
KC Water began the Westport Stormwater Improvement Project in January to address severe flooding every time there was a big rain. It’s a problem rooted in history, said Deputy Director of KC Water Andy Shively. Shively said that as old Westport was developed in the late 19th century, builders did not take into account Mill Creek runoff.
“When they enclosed the creek, they probably didn't anticipate the amount of rain that would take place over the decades,” Shively said. “As you add more impervious surface, you increase more runoff.”
When it’s done, the project will include two reservoirs, each with the capacity to hold over a million gallons of water. It will include almost a mile of storm sewer piping, as well as landscape improvements around the Cosentino’s Sun Fresh Market parking lot at 43rd Street and Broadway Blvd. Shively said the department has received its share of complaints over the infrastructure inconvenience, but promised the work is on schedule.
“The Storm (reservoirs) will be completed in April,” Shively said. “Sidewalks, curbs, driveways in May. Then, temporary pavement restoration by the end of May and final pavement restoration will be completed by October.”
Despite his weariness with the project, David Hutchins knows the work is necessary.
From his apartment close by, he has seen firsthand how rapidly water rises and causes floods. He said the last one hit his complex pretty hard. “The lobby of the building had two feet of water, and it was next to electrical outlets.”
Tony Teng, with the New Peking Restaurant, said even though some businesses are taking a hit from this project, if it keeps floodwaters at bay, it’s worth it.
“I know they are doing this to fix the sewer and things like that,” he said. “It’s for the benefit of the whole community around here, so what has to be done has to be done.
