Why the Diverging Diamond?

The I-435/Front Street Interchange is a key gateway to the Northeast Industrial District—one of Kansas City’s largest employment centers. Workers from all over the metropolitan area as well as freight and delivery trucks from the metro and around the country use the I-435/Front Street Interchange everyday. The huge amount of traffic results in rush hour congestion.

With a “diverging” design, traffic passing through the interchange crosses over to the opposite of the roadway between the interchange ramps allowing efficient turning movements to and from I-435. The crossover movements are safely handled by the traffic signals at the intersections.

The concept is endorsed by the Federal Highway Administration, and testing with a wide range of drivers have found no “wrong-way” issues.

The Diverging Diamond concept was recently and successfully implemented at the heavily traveled interchange of I-44 and Route 13 in Springfield, MO.

Strategies to Manage Traffic

To better manage traffic during interchange construction, MoDOT is coordinating with area employers and partners to develop a set of Transportation Demand Management (TDM) strategies to ease the demand. TDM aims to redistribute or shrink the amount of traffic entering and leaving an area while also offering a range of transportation options to better maximize the available capacity of the system.

Learn more about TDM coordination.