While 19th-century Westport, located in the heart of Kansas City, Missouri, thrived as a cultural melting pot of Black farmers and European immigrants, Missouri's segregation laws stood firm. From these humble beginnings Jeremiah Cameron emerged.
After graduating from Penn School in Westport — the first Black educational institution west of the Mississippi River — Cameron pursued higher education, earning degrees from Indiana University and Michigan State University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Dr. Cameron became an educator, civil rights activist and member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s local chapter until his death in 2008. He was also a parks commissioner whose impact on Kansas City was commemorated with a park bearing his name, fittingly in Westport on the site of the school that first nurtured his mind.
Dr. Cameron, a lifelong Westport resident, no doubt witnessed the devastating effects of flooding — an issue that to this day turns streets into rivers and homes into islands in the Westport entertainment district/Steptoe neighborhood. The area regularly floods because Westport’s Mill Street was originally Mill Creek, and as the area developed, the creek was enclosed and combined with the underground sanitary sewer system, resulting in drainage paths that were obstructed, causing frequent severe flooding. While numerous studies of this problem have been completed in the past, the cost and constructability of the solutions always have resulted in no tangible progress toward addressing the flooding.
In 2022, dreams of a flood-resilient Westport began to take shape with the launch of the Dr. Jeremiah Cameron Park & Westport Stormwater Improvements Project. This ambitious initiative — Kansas City’s first progressive design-build stormwater project — aims to mitigate frequent flooding issues and enhance Westport’s resilience against future storms. The progressive design-build project delivery method was selected for this effort due to an accelerated schedule driven by a desire to have the project completed by the time the 2026 FIFA Soccer World Cup games come to Kansas City.
The project started as a partnership between Kansas City’s Water Services Department and the Westport Regional Business League (WRBL). Spearheaded by Burns & McDonnell, the project represents a significant milestone in the city’s approach to stormwater management and is not only a technical achievement but also a testament to the power of community collaboration, innovative thinking and the enduring impact of Dr. Cameron’s vision for a better Kansas City.
When studying the Westport area, the project team determined traditional city design standards were not suitable for this historic, overcrowded part of the city that had an undersized and overcapacity sewer system. To tackle the flooding issue, the project team used a 2D modeling tool to simulate recent storm events and develop solutions to alleviate the flooding. This approach helped identify problem areas and narrowed in on specific sources of flooding, enabling the team to design improvements that would make a real difference.
“Because the Westport area is historic and fully built out, it was critical having design and construction teams working together from day one on a comprehensive, innovative solution,” says Lauren Moore, water project manager at Burns & McDonnell. “This integrated team collaboration helped refine design and resulted in safer, more cost-conscious constructability.”
The stormwater project involved a comprehensive overhaul of the Westport area’s stormwater and roadway infrastructure. Primary project goals were to reduce flooding by improving drainage systems, increasing water retention capacity and enhancing the overall resilience of the area. But when looking closely at the necessary construction, an opportunity arose to create a more inviting, walkable and safe Mill Street corridor that would enhance the value of this entertainment district. Part of this enhancing included the beautification of Dr. Jeremiah Cameron Park, located at the bottom end of Westport.
Phase 1 of the project focused on preliminary design and field investigation, while Phase 2 will include final design and construction. When completed, the $26 million project will encompass stormwater, water and sewer upgrades, improved sidewalks and parking, enhanced streetscaping with green infrastructure, and park improvements that advance better stormwater capture and boost the area’s aesthetics. A key project feature involves underground storage at Dr. Jeremiah Cameron Park. This includes the design, construction and installation of underground 15-foot tall concrete tanks used for temporarily storing stormwater with slow controlled release using real-time controls. The stored water will be used to sustain native plants and bioretention basins in the adjacent Mill Creek Park, transforming the stormwater into a water resource rather than a waste product conveyed to the wastewater treatment plant.
Collaborative Effort
The project was a collaborative effort with local suppliers. Burns & McDonnell partnered with five minority-owned businesses — Vireo, Taliaferro & Browne, TSi Geotechnical, Link, and Parson & Associates — so that the project benefited from diverse perspectives and experience. Multistudio was another critical project partner that guided the team through design in this historic urban environment and served as a key stakeholder as a member of WRBL.
The collaboration with these vendors led to several innovative solutions that significantly impacted the project’s success. For instance, Taliaferro & Browne’s advanced surveying techniques provided critical modeling data early on for precise mapping of flood-prone areas, enabling targeted interventions. Vireo’s landscape designs, in collaboration with Multistudio, seamlessly integrated green infrastructure into the urban corridor, such as trees and permeable pavements, which not only manage stormwater effectively but also enhance the neighborhood’s green spaces. Additionally, Link’s efforts resulted in the commitment of additional outside funding sources for art, signs and amenities at Dr. Jeremiah Cameron Park through grants from the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Mellon Foundation and Kansas City’s One Percent for Art Program.
With planning and design completed, and the project’s formal groundbreaking scheduled for spring 2025, the involvement of local vendors is having a profound impact on community engagement. Our suppliers’ efforts are helping the Burns & McDonnell team keep residents informed about progress through every phrase of the project’s development. Outreach included communication through a special project website, a dedicated hotline and emails, one-on-one meetings with business owners, door-to-door interactions with area residents, open houses and stakeholder engagement events.
“Dr. Jeremiah Cameron’s legacy lives on through this transformative project, which not only addresses critical infrastructure needs but also honors the history and resilience of the Westport community,” Moore says. “Thinking outside of the box and integrating diverse experience is what has made this project so successful. We had urban planners, traffic engineers, stormwater engineers, landscape architects and construction professionals, all with different viewpoints, involved every step of the way. But we could have been stopped before we even started had we not listened to all the voices in the room and been too afraid to come up with solutions unique to Westport’s circumstances that didn’t follow traditional design and construction approaches.”
This post is part of Together By Design, a business diversity newsletter published by Burns & McDonnell to advance a community of inclusion. This newsletter features stories of great opportunity, leaders who bring out the best in others, innovative approaches, and diverse perspectives that shape the business community and the world at large.
