Design Criteria, Specifications and Standards

The official City of Kansas City, Mo. Public Works Department’s standard specifications and design criteria consist of the Kansas City Metro Chapter, American Public Works Association, Standard Specifications and Design Criteria as revised, adopted and provided by the director of Public Works. The adopted standards, revisions and supplements to APWA can be viewed and printed from the below links.The standards and specifications contain material, equipment, design criteria and construction requirements of infrastructure items proposed for construction within the city limits of Kansas City, Mo.

Construction work shall conform to the Public Works Department contract documents in the case of a City contract or a City issued construction permit in the case of a developer/owner contract.

Design Criteria

• 5100 – Site work and erosion and sediment – design
• 5200 – Street design criteria
• 5500 – Sanitary sewers and appurtenances – design
• 5600: Storm drainage systems – design
• 5700 – Structures – design
• 5800 – Street lighting – design
• BMP manual

Construction Specifications

• 1720 – City Surveying and construction staking
• 1722 – Surveying and construction staking
• 2000 – General Standards – construction
• 2100 – Grading and site preparation – construction
• 2200 – Paving – construction
• 2300 – Incidental construction
• 2305 – Traffic control – Pedestrian traffic control and sidewalk closure
• 2400 – Seeding and sodding – construction
• 2500 – Sanitary sewers – construction
• 2600 – Storm sewers – construction
• 2700 – Structures – construction
• 2800 – Street lights – construction

• Standard Drawings
•  Construction and Material Specifications
•  Traffic Signal Specifications and Drawings
•  Street Name Signs Specifications 
• Approved Ready Mix Concrete Plants
•  Approved Hot Mix Asphalt Plants
•  Approved Precast Concrete Structure Plants
•  Approved Third-Party Materials Testing Labs
•  Ready Mix Concrete Plant Quality Management Plan
•  Precast Concrete StructurePlant Quality Management Plan
•  Hot Mix Asphalt Plant – Quality Management Plan
•  Prequalified Testing Laboratory Quality Management Plan
•  Easement Forms
•  Materials Testing Requirements

KCMO Guidelines

• Guidelines for guardrail
• Major street plan
• Speed hump drawing
• Traffic calming guidelines
• Traffic circle design
• Traffic impact analysis guidelines
• Trail standards
• High-Intensity Discharge (HID) Roadway Luminaires
• Light Emitting Diode (LED) Roadway Luminaires

The Kansas City Metro Chapter, of the American Public Works Association Standard Specifications and Design Criteria are available at the KC APWA website (click on specifications).

Project-specific construction documents, including all Contract Drawings and Specifications (Project Manual) are available from KCMO Planroom.

Viewing Information

The standards are provided in PDF format and may be viewed and printed using the Adobe Acrobat Reader software program that is available free to download.

Standards Review

City design standards are regularly reviewed, a process involving public comment from the building trades community.

Current proposed standards are as follows:

• APWA Section 2800 – street lights – construction
• APWA Section 5800 – street lighting – design

Previous standards discussed last year were as follows:

• APWA Section 2300
• Street resurfacing
• Residential street standards
• Alley standards
• Driveway standards
• Curb and gutter standards
• APWA Section 2800 – street lights – construction
• APWA Section 5800 – street lighting – design

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