The U.S. 69 Modernization and Expansion Project (69Express) is examining in greater depth the two options that most improve U.S. 69 travel time reliability and predictability: (1) adding a lane in each direction through traditional widening; or (2) adding an Express Toll Lanes (ETL) in each direction. In this issue, both are examined in terms of congestion management, phasing and cost.
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Clearer Roads Ahead: ETLs Manage Congestion Better Over Time than Just Adding Lanes
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“Future proofing” U.S. 69 is one of the driving forces for the 69Express Project. The Project Team is focused on developing a solution that will reduce traffic congestion as far into the future as possible. This will delay or eliminate the ever-more costly approach of adding more lanes with negative impacts to nearby homes, businesses and the local environment.
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Historically, the solution to solving congestion has been to add more lanes. But ongoing research and experience in growing areas has shown that such an approach only reduces congestion in the short term. New traffic is attracted to the improved highway, followed by increasing traffic produced by longer-term economic and population growth. Without the incentive of a strategy like managed toll lanes, the return of congestion generates increasingly uneconomical and environmentally challenging demands for even more lanes, according to the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s 2019 Urban Mobility Report.
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Since the first ETL was created in 1995, more than 12 states have built or plan to build toll-managed express lanes as a better, long-term solution to congestion. ETLs manage congestion by using pricing to balance traffic across all lanes of a highway. Allowing drivers to make their own cost/time tradeoff results in drivers using the lane that works best for them. |
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The result is that ETLs delay – or perhaps eliminate – the need for additional lane(s). This reduces construction and maintenance costs, while also avoiding expansions that risk encroachment on nearby homes and businesses. |
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Reducing Congestion Increases Safety |
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The addition of Express Toll Lanes and the congestion management improvements they bring may subtract one thing no one wants on their daily travels - crashes.
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A congested highway can be prone to accidents, and U.S. 69 is no exception. Between 2015 and 2020, 1,719 crashes were reported – the equivalent of one crash almost every day. More than half of the accidents were rear-end collisions. Another 12% involved one vehicle sideswiping another, with both vehicles traveling in the same direction. |
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These kinds of crashes typically happen in stop-and-go traffic on congested corridors. Although many factors influence the type and frequency of crashes, it is likely that improved congestion management in a corridor will reduce crash frequency. |
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ETLs Are Better Than Traditional Lane in Supporting Transit |
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Transit can be an important strategy for reducing congestion, as well as a key tool in achieving other goals, including improved energy conservation, air-quality mobility for transportation- disadvantaged groups and community livability. That’s why one consideration in deciding how best to improve U.S. 69 involves looking at which alternative does the better job of making transit a more realistic option for more people.
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Figure 1: U.S. 69 Improvement Alternatives and How Well They Work |
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The preliminary analysis conducted by the Project Team indicates that ETLs do the best job of supporting transit (Figure 1), shown as “Provide Flexible Choices,” which is defined as “promoting a transportation system that accommodates the needs for all users and modes.”
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ETLs better serve transit primarily by improving travel time reliability and predictability, which makes it easier to support and expand transit service. As the American Public Transportation Association notes: “There is a recognizable set of adaptation strategies that may contain or reverse ridership declines. These include ensuring that key selected routes are time competitive and reliable for every trip compared to other mobility options.”
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ETLs accomplish this by reducing congestion and slow-downs in all lanes and open up the opportunity for transit to run in the Express Toll Lane itself, factors addressed by 69Express Advisory Group Member Julie Brewer, executive director of United Community Services of Johnson County, in her guest column. |
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Guest Column: Express Toll Lanes Are the Most Transit-Supportive Alternative for U.S. 69
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A strong transit system in Overland Park is important to our region’s economic performance and productivity because it offers members of our community more personal mobility choices and greater access to jobs, services and other regional amenities.
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Julie Brewer, Executive Director
United Community Services
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Recognizing this, KDOT and the other U.S. 69 Modernization and Expansion Project partners are examining transit improvements, alone and in tandem with other alternatives, as a way to reduce congestion on this key corridor. Traffic, already heavy during morning and evening rush hours, is expected to triple by 2040. As congestion surges, workers who rely on U.S. 69 to get to and from their jobs will be increasingly reluctant to use the corridor. Businesses will have a harder time attracting and retaining employees. And transit agencies may hesitate to expand service if demand fluctuates among current and potential users based on congestion delays.
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Reducing congestion and improving travel time reliability on U.S. 69 is critically important to advancing transit use. But the reverse is true, too: improving transit is critically important to reducing congestion and improving travel times. As a member of the U.S. 69 Project’s Advisory Group, I have come to understand that express toll lanes (ETLs) – one of two main alternatives KDOT is assessing – are the corridor’s most transit-supportive option. ETLs produce the biggest congestion reduction for more years than other options, improving transit reliability and making it a more realistic option for area residents. |
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Improved transit service quality will be further enhanced by letting transit vehicles use the express lanes for little cost. Under current Kansas law, all vehicles using toll lanes must pay a toll. However, KDOT is open to allowing transit vehicles to be charged a reduced fee. By doing so, ETLs is clearly the alternative best positioned to support expanded transit service and encourage increased ridership, expanding the range of integrated, multi-modal solutions to our community’s mobility challenges. |
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Much remains to be studied about how best to improve U.S. 69, and that information will help determine the final preferred alternative for reducing congestion. But, on the question of which option best serves transit, it appears that ETLs offer more potential for improving and expanding transit use on U.S. 69. |
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Julie Brewer
Executive Director, United Community Services
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Weighing U.S. 69 Improvement Options to Find the Best Cost and Schedule Fit for Corridor Needs
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The Project Team has examined how improvement projects can be logically phased and built in the most cost- and time-efficient manner and with the least impact to travelers and surrounding neighborhoods and businesses.
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The Project Team also looked at making sure that each phase, once built, functions effectively even if other phases are unexpectedly delayed or not constructed. |
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The Team found that Express Toll Lanes (ETLs): |
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Can be built more quickly and less expensively over fewer phases (Figure 2);
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- Require a longer and more expensive Phase 1 than any other phase in either option because the ETL road length must be long enough to provide a noticeable travel-time benefit and provide enough room for drivers to enter and exit the express lane safely; and
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- Help create a situation in which, after Phase 1 is built, fewer phases on construction are needed, which mean fewer years of disruption for those living near and/or traveling on U.S. 69.
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Figure 2: U.S. 69 Improvement Phasing |
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Figure 2 shows how each added-capacity
alternative would be phased during construction.
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The Team also found that Traditional Widening: |
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- Provides more flexibility and options because smaller improvement projects (or phases) can be built;
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- Allows the number of construction phases to vary based on funding, ability of the community to provide a local contribution and other factors; and
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- Means constructing the full overall corridor improvements in as many as nine phases (compared with four phases with ETLs), meaning construction disruptions on U.S. 69 could extend over a longer period.
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ETLs have a lower long term cost
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ETLs are estimated to cost $85 million less in the long run than traditional widening options. The ETL Alternative has a smaller footprint and will move the same or more traffic with fewer lanes than would occur with traditional widening. Not only does this produce fewer impacts on noise, air quality and the natural environment; fewer lanes mean the project will be less costly to construct (Figure 3).
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Figure 3: Cost Differences Between Add-Capacity Alternatives By Phase |
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Shown here are the projected costs associated with each of the proposed construction phases for each U.S. 69 capacity improvement option. Each phase location and its cost is shown; each matching color/number combination represents a separate phase for each expansion option. |
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Additionally, because ETLs can be constructed in fewer phases over a shorter period of time, the impact of inflation on labor and material costs will likely be reduced. Phases covering larger project segments also make it easier to tap into added value from project delivery and construction innovations. |
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U.S. 69 Corridor Modernization and Expansion Project.
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