KSHB 41 reporter Rachel Henderson covers neighborhoods in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties. Share your story idea with Rachel.
Business owners along Shawnee Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas say they’re feeling trapped, largely due to the Kansas Avenue Bridge’s closure and the subsequent impacts on commerce in the area.
“We decided to move our company down here,” said Ryan Gale, a business owner with his wife. He also rents out space in his building on Shawnee Avenue. "We wanted to be close by to the river.”
Gale’s company has been in the area for four years.
He says they've invested at least $1 million in improving the space.
“We came down and invested in this,” Gale said.
Every time he hears a train pass along the tracks outside his business, he says he and the other business owners know what to expect.
“This whole entire street, you’ve got hundreds and hundreds of people that work over here who get stranded,” Gale said. "If we have any sort of life safety issue over here, a heart attack, a fire, we’re completely out of luck."
Gale says that’s because their usual route alone the Kansas Avenue Bridge has been closed for years.
On top of that, other bridge closures in the area haven't helped, he says.
What was once a two-minute commute to work has turned into over 15 minutes on high-traffic days.
He’s knows potential customers are deterred by that reality.
“People won’t rent from us because they come down here and get trapped here,” Gale said. “It doesn’t seem smart to be losing revenue over it and putting people’s lives at risk.”
The Kansas Avenue Bridge closed in 2022 over structural concerns.
At the time, it carried around 7,000 vehicles daily and helped connect drivers from Missouri to Kansas and Kansas drivers to Missouri.
The bridge project costs $116 million dollars to complete, and the UG approved funding for temporary repairs in 2022.
It applied for a federal grant in 2023, but according to its website, didn’t receive the grant.
According to the UG's website, the most recent update on money for the project is that discussions are “ongoing” on how to secure additional funding.
“People are actually moving out,” Gale said at the June 5 community budget proposal hearing.
Dozens of community members attended to voice their concerns and thoughts ahead of the 2026 budget approval in August.
“I literally had to go down there in order to even be heard, which I don’t know that I was,” Gale said. “I haven’t heard anything back.”
That same sentiment goes for the emails he's sent to UG staff about his safety concerns before and after the meeting.
Last year, community members pleaded for commissioners to not exceed revenue neutral for the 2025 budget so property taxes wouldn’t increase.
The board of commissioners, county administrator and UG staff members met Thursday for one of the many public budget sessions the UG hosted ahead of the new budget presentation in August.
“We heard from our public at our public meetings that they wanted certain improved services,” County Administrator David Johnston said at that meeting. “When we started looking at that, it’s like, ‘Oh my God, we gotta come up with a lot of cash.’”
The UG says improving infrastructure remains one of its budget priorities.
Spending on infrastructure makes up 22% of combined city and county expenses, which now total $474 million.
“We started reaching back out again, and then, just crickets,” Gale said.
By the look and sound of things, the train is the only thing Gale can guarantee is on track.
He hopes that changes soon, not just for his sake, but for the county’s.
“Somebody needs to take this seriously, and I don’t know who that’s going to be,” Gale said.
