Turner Diagonal Project Wins National Award

Published on October 29, 2021

The Turner Diagonal project in Wyandotte County has won the 2021 America’s Transportation People’s Choice Award.

Previously announced as a Top-12 Competitor, this homegrown project outperformed others from Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Utah. The annual competition is sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and AAA.

While an independent panel of transportation experts chose the Grand Prize Winner, the public selected the People’s Choice Award winner through online voting weighted to each competing state’s population. This year’s competition included 80 project nominations from 25 state departments of transportation.

“To have the Turner Diagonal Interchange redesign project in KCK be nominated by Kansas to first represent, and now be named a winner of this national intermodal competition, is indicative of the momentum, growth, and investment that has continued in Wyandotte County over the last several years,” said Mayor/CEO David Alvey of Wyandotte County, Kansas City KS. “This interchange replacement effort at I-70 and the Turner Diagonal Freeway was completed in record time, improving safety and access to public transit for pedestrians, reducing congestion, and promoting economic development and new jobs for our community. A catalytic investment for the area, just this week a ribbon-cutting for the new Turner Logistics Center took place adjacent to this interchange, creating more than 1.3 million sq. ft. of space for new businesses, providing up to 1,875 new jobs, and with an anticipated $1.3 million in new revenue for our community’s needs. Congratulations and thanks to our state, private sector, and community partners on this joint collaboration; it was truly a team effort.”

In addition to bragging rights for the State of Kansas and Wyandotte County, the top prize also includes a $10,000 cash award for a charity or transportation-related scholarship. Due to the hard work of Kansas Department of Transportation partners, more than $20,000 in additional scholarship funding was raised, bringing the total to more than $30,000.

The Turner Diagonal Interchange sits at the country's crossroads – about a two-day drive from 85 percent of the U.S. population. This location services 65,000 vehicles per day, 25 percent of which are trucks, and is very close to other major highways. The new design of the Turner Diagonal Interchange will now meet the community's needs well into the future.

The previous interchange, which featured large, winding on and off-ramps, has been reconfigured into a Diverging Diamond Interchange (DDI). The removal of the old ramps opens up 300 acres of previously unused land for economic development and job creation.

The new interchange also provides better access to businesses along the Turner Diagonal, improves safety, and allows traffic to move efficiently through the corridor. In addition to these improvements, the project added a new shared-use-path and sidewalk from Riverview Avenue through the new DDI that connects to existing sidewalks at State Avenue. The project also addressed freight parking at the truck staging facilities west of the interchange.

“The Turner Diagonal Interchange Reconstruction continues to win awards, and this is a testament to the positive outcomes that great public-private partnerships and the design-build process can achieve,” said Jeff Fisher, Unified Government Public Works Executive Director. “Design-build allowed our partnership to deliver this project quickly, efficiently, and with great discipline. Thank you to our project partners and everyone who voted to make the Turner Diagonal Interchange Reconstruction the 2021 America’s Transportation People’s Choice Award winner.”

The project is the result of a partnership between the Unified Government, the Kansas Department of Transportation, the Kansas Turnpike Authority, the Federal Highway Administration, and NorthPoint Development. It was supported by a Federal BUILD Grant (Better Utilizing Investments of Leverage Development) grant of $13-million that funded 46% of all project costs.

Learn more about the Kansas Department of Transportation on their website at kskdot.org.

To view a copy of the America’s Transportation Awards Press Release, visit americastransportationawards.org.