Grand Island, Kearney And Hastings All Together As One Big Tri-City Metro?

[mrsticka]

Bear with me on this one. Let's say Grand Island is in the same spot it is in reality. That doesn't change. But here's what does change: Hastings is right next to it on its south end. And Kearney is right on the middle west end of both Grand Island and Hastings. So when you pass Husker Highway where US 34 parts with US 281, going north, you're in Grand Island. Going south, you're in Hastings. And Engleman Road is where Grand Island and Hastings end and Kearney begins. So once you pass that road, you're in Kearney.

And US 281 being a full freeway from I-80 up to the north end of Grand Island after the NE 2 exit. Then after that exit, instead of US 281 taking a 90-degree turn east, it takes a 25-degree turn north-northeast until it reaches White Cloud Road where it finally continues its normal real-life pathway up to St. Paul.

And since it's a full freeway through Hastings and Grand Island, it has an interstate designation: I-580. It starts at I-80 and ends at the NE 2 exit near the airport.

US 30 also being a freeway through Kearney and Grand Island. It starts at I-80 and goes into Kearney as a full freeway and has exits along certain streets. So the interchange with I-580/US 281 is a cloverleaf interchange. Then the freeway finally ends at Grant Street where the viaduct near Downtown Grand Island.

And the airport (Central Nebraska Regional Airport) having a somewhat larger terminal with 6 gates with flights to Lincoln, Scottsbluff, Norfolk, Sioux Falls, Topeka and Wichita.

So in its own way, it would be like the Tri-Cities in Washington (Pasco, Richland and Kennewick). If you've ever been up there before, you might or might not know what I'm talking about. Overall the population would be around 100,000. It would still be smaller than Lincoln and Omaha.

So how would Central Nebraska be if it was like this? With Grand Island, Kearney and Hastings all being right next to each other as one big Tri-City metropolitan area?

[CrankyOldDude]

And the airport (Central Nebraska Regional Airport) having a somewhat larger terminal with 6 gates with flights to Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis, Dallas, Orlando, Las Vegas, Phoenix and (what the h e l l ) Cancun

There. Fixed it for you.

[Busguy2010]

It would be a metropolitan area of about 110,000 people. What advantage that would be vs the 3 separate cities, I wouldnt know. Assuming UNK would be bigger, maybe their football program would be bigger. But the University of Nebraska obviously cant have two big programs.
So, new state college! Call it Tri-City State University, or something more creative. But you have a football program big enough to compete with the Skers, and you can have a yearly matchup like Iowa does.

[CDixon]

The Tri-Cities already have a surprisingly long page on Wikipedia that treats them as a sort of mini-CSA. Not sure it's up to the site's standards, like an interesting read.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-Cities_(Nebraska)

[mrsticka]

And the airport (Central Nebraska Regional Airport) having a somewhat larger terminal with 6 gates with flights to Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis, Dallas, Orlando, Las Vegas, Phoenix and (what the h e l l ) Cancun

There. Fixed it for you.

At least you have a good sense of humor.

[Candleshoe]

I could imagine a Grand Island/Hastings CSA being realistically possible. The workforce that travels between the two cities on US281 each day is sizeable. The undeveloped area south of GI to the Interstate/Platte River is now down to about one mile. Doniphan lies just to the south of the Interstate. From Doniphan, it's 8 miles to the northern edge of the Lochland subdivision in Hastings.

GI Metro is 86,467 (2020) and Hastings Micropolitan area is 40,577 (2020) for a combined 126,974. I don't think Kearney would ever fit into a CSA with the others, just a bit too far away at 40 miles. Besides, it draws its market area from the north and south and a bit to the west, primarily.

[mrsticka]

I've sometimes heard the area referred to as the Tri-Cities anyway. So that's what inspired my original post. Plus, the Tri-Cities in Washington. They're all together as one big metro. So it had me wondering what if Nebraska had a similar Tri-City area?