construction

Using straw instead of typical insulation materials reduces a house’s carbon footprint, because straw absorbs carbon instead of emitting it. It's also highly energy efficient, can be sourced locally and is a natural agricultural byproduct of growing cereal grains.

With all the track for the KC Streetcar expansion to UMKC now installed, Mayor Quinton Lucas said the project is about 93% done. What's left though is months of testing before it can open next summer.

A wood building material can be used in high-rise structures, giving it the potential to replace materials that are bad for the climate, while also locking carbon into buildings for decades.

Kansas City's streetcar will stop running at the end of September so that construction crews can connect the existing tracks at Union Station to the UMKC extension. The city will offer bus service along the route during the outage.

The Missouri Department of Transportation is expanding I-70 to three lanes each way, with the first 20-mile section expected to be completed by the end of 2027. More than 40,000 vehicles travel between Kansas City and St. Louis each day.

A pair of studies found that tens of thousands of construction workers in Missouri and Kansas are incorrectly classified as independent contractors. That means employers are avoiding withholding income tax and paying into programs like Social Security, unemployment insurance and Medicare.

The Kansas City housing market is tight. Lower-interest mortgages signed during the pandemic discourage homeowners from moving on and taking on higher rates, and new construction isn't keeping up with the demand.

De Soto, Kansas, was selected by the company Panasonic as the site of its $4 billion electric vehicle battery plant in 2022, bringing 4,000 new jobs to the region. Now, just over one year away from the plant's planned opening, numerous public and private infrastructure developments are well underway in preparation.

Northbound drivers will no longer use the old Buck O’Neil bridge and will instead cross the Missouri River on a completed section of the new one. Despite weather delays, MoDOT says the project remains on schedule and within its $258 million budget.

Some of the very first homes in Kansas were built by members of the Wichita Tribe with cut bundles of native bluestem grass. A new generation of students at Haskell Indian Nations University are learning the skill, and reconnecting with a Great Plains tradition.

Heat index values have tied decades-old records in parts of the Midwest this week, subjecting many of Missouri’s outdoor workers — landscapers, Streetcar construction crews and more — to potentially dangerous conditions.

As construction on the KC Streetcar extension to UMKC continues, crews are now working 24/7 on emergency repairs to address a track failure on the line above I-670. It will take weeks to complete the repairs, and service is suspended in the meantime.