Passengers will be able to ride the Kansas City streetcar all the way to the river next month.
The Kansas City Streetcar Authority announced Tuesday that the Berkley Riverfront extension will open to the public on May 18. It comes about seven months after the extension south to the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus opened in October. The additional 0.7-mile extension cost $62 million to build.
With the latest extension, the streetcar now covers 5.7 miles north to south through Kansas City. The streetcar will cross the Grand Boulevard Bridge to the midpoint of the riverfront, which the city has been developing in recent years to include CPKC Stadium, a beer garden and restaurant.
Tom Gerend, executive director of the KC Streetcar Authority, said in a statement that the extension reconnects the riverfront for the next generation.
“This streetcar extension represents our intentional return to where it all started and will serve as the new northern terminus for the 6.5 mile transit spine connecting our growing riverfront to downtown, UMKC, and everything in between,” Gerend said.
Drivers and pedestrians may see the streetcar running from 3rd Street and Grand Boulevard, across the bridge to the riverfront, even before the open date. The extension is in its “pre-revenue operations phase,” which the streetcar authority said is the final step before opening safely to the public.
The new Grand Boulevard Bike and Pedestrian Bridge, which runs parallel to the existing bridge, will provide cyclists and pedestrians a way to safely travel from the River Market to the riverfront. It will open to the public in early May. It cost the city a little over $15 million.
Previously, the Grand Boulevard Bridge had no sidewalk, posing a safety risk to pedestrians and people on bikes. In a video posted to social media, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas called it “a great new path and investment in Kansas City’s infrastructure, linking two great neighborhoods down by the river!”
