Work continued over the past year to update Connected KC 2050, a shared, community-driven
vision for the Kansas City metro’s regional transportation system. Designed to guide infrastructure investments and ensure the region remains connected and accessible, the plan identifies transportation improvements through 2050. The plan evaluates a variety of considerations, such as projected population and employment growth, maintenance of transportation facilities, safety, quality of life and preserving the human and natural environment. As the region’s metropolitan planning agency, MARC is required to update the plan every five years. In 2024, MARC evaluated and prioritized over 500 transportation project submittals, conducted financial capacity analysis, updated the plan’s policy framework and conducted a new round of outreach seeking public
input. The plan update is due in June 2025.

Over the past year, MARC solicited applications, evaluated project submissions and approved funding recommendations for approximately $150 million in transportation investments across the region, including improved transit service, roadways and trails. Additionally, MARC supported Kansas and Missouri leaders in launching the first phase of the Bi-State Sustainable Reinvestment Corridor project, a 24-mile corridor connecting three downtowns and multiple destinations in the Kansas City region. Supported by a $5.6 million federal grant, MARC oversees coordination of the project’s long-term, multi-jurisdictional strategy to support infrastructure, transportation and economic development. Work includes completing advanced conceptual engineering designs for high-capacity transit routes and supporting regional efforts to improve access to housing, health care, employment and education for residents in each city and the surrounding area.

In 2024, OGL managed the $734,000 U.S. Department of Transportation Smart Grant project, a regional effort to deploy and evaluate crowdsourced arterial performance measures. OGL also completed construction of 16 video surveillance systems and 54 traffic signal controllers with Gladstone; Kansas City, Missouri; North Kansas City; Belton; Raymore; Independence; Lee’s Summit and the Missouri Department of Transportation. In addition, OGL supported a transportation emissions reduction project in Mission, Kansas, to install wireless radios, CCTV and controllers to bring Johnson Drive online with the program. Over the course of 2024, OGL completed 673 traffic signal investigations and re-timed 73 signals.

Working to proactively position the region to take advantage of changes happening in the
freight industry, MARC, the Lawrence-Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Organization and Pioneer Trails Regional Planning Commission in 2024 began developing a freight plan,
Connected Freight KC 2050. The freight plan intends to encompass 14 counties — MARC’s
nine-county region, extending to Douglas County in Kansas, and Johnson, Lafayette, Pettis and Saline counties in Missouri.

MARC recently released and printed a new version of the Greater Kansas City Regional Trails and Bikeways Map. Helping residents find new places to explore, the free popular resource showcases more than 2,000 miles of trails and bikeways, locations of RideKC Bike bikeshare hubs and a QR code that takes users to the online version of the map. MARC distributed copies to local bike shops, libraries and other organizations around the region.

MARC’s Planning Sustainable Places program awarded nearly $1.5 million in grant funds to
17 local projects in 2024 — nine in Kansas and eight in Missouri. The PSP program supports
community efforts to create vibrant places that offer a mix of options for housing, jobs, services
and recreation; connected places with a variety of transportation options; and green places
that support healthy living and a healthy natural environment. These concepts are promoted
in the region’s long-range transportation plan, Connected KC 2050 and in many city and county comprehensive plans