Kansas City area drivers will soon have a yearslong commute problem to work out.
Construction on a park built over the downtown portion of Interstate 670 will begin later this year. The Roy Blunt Luminary Park will cap a portion of the south loop downtown between Wyandotte Street and Grand Boulevard.
The project is slated to close the downtown portion of I-670 for two years. The closure will run concurrently with the Missouri Department of Transportation’s project to improve Interstate 70 between Paseo and Van Brunt boulevards, which will fully close that stretch of interstate for a year.
Kansas City unveiled plans for the park in 2022, and named it after former U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt in 2025 after he secured about $28 million for the project. Officials originally hoped the 5.5-acre park would be completed in time for the summer World Cup matches. But delays in funding put the south loop lid multiple years behind schedule.
Now, a scaled-back version of the project is moving forward with just one of the four planned blocks of the park. Jeff Martin, assistant city manager for Kansas City, said project leaders hope completion of the first phase of the park will “kickstart” additional funding to finish the rest.
“When we determined that the funding was not going to be there to complete everything at the same time, we shifted and decided to move forward with this phase one approach,” Martin said. “As funding becomes available in the future, we can gauge how we move forward with those additional blocks, whether it's one at a time or whether we’re able to do multiple ones at a time.”
Construction will require both lanes of I-670 to close between I-35 and U.S. Highway 71 from this December through September 2028. Truman Road between Broadway Boulevard and Baltimore Avenue will also close during that time.
Additional intermittent closures of Wyandotte Street and Baltimore Avenue will continue until the project is completed, which is expected in the spring of 2029. Portions of Wyandotte Street in the area are already closed for construction of the redesigned Barney Allis Plaza.
The project is meant to reconnect downtown with the Crossroads and neighborhoods beyond the loop after highway construction ripped up the city’s urban core. The park’s first block is expected to include walking paths, picnic areas, play equipment, art installations, and space for food trucks and community events.
Though the single block of park space will be the most visible, the first phase of construction will establish more than half of the planned tunnel infrastructure and much of the necessary highway and infrastructure work. Future phases will include more park work and less tunnel and highway construction, but will still require closures.
Construction on the first phase of the project is expected to cost more than $164 million.
Completing the rest will require more funding from Missouri and the federal government, as well as private funding where available. Officials have secured partial funding from MoDOT for future phases of construction.
Each additional block of park is expected to cost approximately $60 million. How much of the park is completed during each future phase depends on available funding.
“I really can't predict what we'll have in the future, but we're hopeful that we'll continue to have support on the state and federal level for future funding,” Martin said. “Ideally, we'd like to obtain enough funding that we could move in and complete the entire project with a second phase if funding is available.”
In the meantime, Martin encouraged drivers to plan their commute now ahead of the December closure. There will be a marked detour for the closed portion of I-670, but Martin stressed that may not be enough for everyone.
“There's no single detour that will work best for all destinations,” he said. “Use your navigation apps, visit the project website, look at our detour maps and follow us for project updates throughout the construction of this phase.”
