Project Overview

The Prospect Avenue Safety Improvements project will study and design roadway and intersection safety, traffic, and mobility improvements from Linwood Boulevard to Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard. The project team is in the public engagement phase and wants to hear from you!

The City was awarded a $10 million Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) federal grant to design and construct safety improvements on Prospect Avenue. Additional funding comes from a 20% local match of $2.5 million, bringing the project’s total investment to $12.5 million.

Project Background

The City has the fourth highest fatal crash rate in the country, and this nearly 2-mile stretch of Prospect Avenue is on the Kansas City High-Injury Network (HIN) and is one of the most dangerous transportation corridors in the City. Kansas City’s fatal crash rate is 16.9 per 100,000 residents, but on Prospect Avenue it is nearly double at 30.7 per 100,000 residents. Additional crash data includes:

• Between 2017 and 2021, Prospect Avenue was the site of four fatal crashes, 11 crashes with serious injuries, 216 crashes with minor injuries, and 296 incidents of property damage resulting from crashes.
• Eighteen percent of the fatal and serious injury crashes on Prospect Avenue from 2013-2024 involved a driver aged 15-20 years old.

This project coordinates with the City’s broader ProspectUS Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Strategic Plan adopted in February 2025. The ProspectUS TOD Plan is a strategic framework for improving the quality of life, advancing equity and inclusion, enhancing operational efficiency and accountability, and supporting long-term economic and infrastructure resilience. ProspectUS’s vision for Prospect Avenue is a safe, walkable, transit-oriented corridor that benefits existing residents. This project supports ProspectUS goals by designing safety improvements to reduce deaths and serious injuries on a priority HIN corridor. 

Public Engagement

Thank you to everyone who attended the Community Open House on Thursday, August 13, 2026, at Rock of Ages Baptist Church. For those who couldn't attend the event - you can still give feedback by filling out this online survey! The survey will be open through August 2026.

The project team is in the process of scheduling neighborhood pop-up events, and will share more details soon about future community engagement opportunities. We want to hear more from you - so stay tuned for updates!

Materials from the August 13th Open House can be dowloaded below:

• Open House Poster Boards
• Project Scroll-Map

Thank you to everyone who filled out the original online survey between May - July 2026 or attended one of several pop-up engagement events!

Residents can follow the project SpeakEasy page, which will also be updated throughout the project process.

Traffic Impact

This project is currently in the study phase and there is no impact to traffic at this time. More information will be shared as the project advances into the design phase about anticipated traffic impacts during construction.

Project Timeline

The project team is currently analyzing existing conditions, reviewing previously approved plans, and identifying current best practices.

We anticipate community engagement and key stakeholder outreach to begin in spring 2026 and the study, including conceptual safety improvements, to be complete in August 2026. The project is expected to move into the design phase in the fall of 2026 with construction planned for late 2027 or 2028.