69Express continues reaching out as broadly as possible to the U.S. 69 community to better understand travel needs and preferences. For example, the Project Team held a Jan. 20 virtual public meeting to give area residents and travelers an opportunity to learn more about the Project and provide feedback. Nearly 440 people viewed the virtual public meeting, and 209 individuals took part in the live portion of the meeting.

They also offered more than 115 comments and posed more than 60 questions, most frequently: (1) There is a need for improvements on U.S. 69; (2) Is tolling the right solution?; (3) Will people use it? and (4) How will the toll lanes work?

Comments and questions received from the public like this are posted to the Project website; visit it regularly to see what the community is asking or commenting about. Two good places to check are FAQs and Resources. Be sure to leave us your own question or comment in the Feedback section.

And watch for the new event calendar coming soon to the Project website. It will help you identify future participation opportunities and see what kind of community presentation the Project Team is making.

With more than 80,000 vehicles a day traveling along U.S. 69, the corridor serves as a backbone for moving people in Overland Park and Johnson County. It also is an important corridor for connecting southeast Kansas to the Kansas City metropolitan area. These drivers report that congestion they experience during the morning and evening rush hours cuts into time with their families, productive time at work and other priorities. Congestion also prompts concerns about public safety, increased risk of traffic accidents and longer response times for emergency personnel.

KDOT wants to partner with Overland Park to plan effectively for the growth the community is experiencing. One component of the U.S. 69 Expansion Project will determine if adding express toll lanes (ETLs) for north and southbound traffic could offer a less-congested alternative for long-term growth of the community.

The characteristics of U.S. 69 between 1‍03rd Street and 1‍79th Street — high traffic volumes, anticipated growth and regional demographics — suggest that ETLs could provide congestion management benefits. They work by managing congestion using dynamic pricing based on supply and demand, creating a dependable, reliable trip option for people who choose to use them.

Applying a variably priced toll, based on the level of traffic, ensures that the ETLs will reliably operate at free-flow conditions even as traffic continues to grow in the corridor over time. And, offering a consistently free-flowing lane at all times reduces pressure to build additional highway lanes in the future.

If something is free, people tend to use it more excessively than if they had paid a price that reflected its cost. ETLs represent a more sustainable solution for improving U.S. 69 because they would better relieve congestion now and into the future as compared to adding more toll-free lanes, which could lead U.S. 69 to becoming an eight- to 10-lane highway. This outcome, besides encroaching on nearby businesses and homes, would increase noise levels along U.S. 69 significantly.

ETLs further decrease congestion by creating greater incentive to use transit. By giving transit faster passage through the corridor within the express toll lane, ETLs improve transit travel time reliability for commuters. By improving bus operating speeds and service reliability, express toll lanes on U.S. 69 Highway also could provide new opportunities for transit, including improved future bus operating speeds, reliability and service for underserved suburb-to-suburb transit markets.

KDOT continues working with the community and state legislators to refine the express toll lane (ETL) concept. The week of March 1 saw floor debate in the Kansas House of Representatives regarding a bill that would have provided clarification and flexibility by establishing clear partnerships for KDOT and the Kansas Turnpike Authority to collaborate on ETL operation, creating opportunities to support public transit operations and allowing revenues to be used for additional improvements within the corridor.

Although the proposed bill was not sent on to the Senate for consideration, nothing about the initial legislation approved in 2019 has changed. Communities still can request KDOT evaluate tolling options as a tool for raising their local contributions, and express toll lanes still can be used as a congestion management tool to help manage investment in the corridor long term. If express lanes are moved forward, revenue collected on the tolled roadway can only be used on that same roadway segment.

KDOT and Overland Park remain focused on improving mobility and reducing congestion to better meet user and community needs. We are proceeding with the preliminary engineering and environmental evaluation, including the exploration of express toll lanes as a potential congestion management solution for U.S. 69.

If you belong to a group that would like to have its own conversation with the Project Team about the U.S. 69 Expansion and Modernization Project, it’s simple to request a presentation. Just fill out a Request a Presentation form on the 69Express website.

Or you can take part in upcoming discussion opportunities: