Detour at Edgewood and Highway 100 comes to end

CEDAR RAPIDS - A twisting detour that Edgewood Road drivers have coped with for almost a year because of the Highway 100 extension project is set to come to an end Thursday with the partial opening of a new bridge.

The bridge will straighten out traffic on Edgewood and eventually handle three lanes each of northbound and southbound travel.

For now, only one lane in each direction on the bridge will open Thursday - but that's enough to end the detour that has been in place since last July.

'It's been a long year, so we're very very anxious to have the north and south opened back up,” said Tracy Kading, store director of the Hy-Vee grocery on the northeast side of the detour. 'I go through (the detour) every day and I think for residents and customers and people in the general area. it will be a breath of fresh air,”

Even with the partial bridge opening, announced Monday by the Iowa Department of Transportation, work there will continue.

The additional lanes on the bridge need to be completed, and Highway 100 itself still needs to be constructed under and to the west of the bridge.

Additionally, another change is coming later this month for drivers headed from northbound Edgewood to eastbound Highway 100.

On June 21, weather permitting, the entrance ramp for those drivers will close for an expected two months, the DOT said Monday.

Drivers northbound on Edgewood will have to cross the new bridge and then turn right to access Highway 100 - rather than veering off before they reach the bridge like they do now.

Highway 100 currently ends at Edgewood Drive. It is being extended west and south to Highway 30, allowing travelers from the north and west to bypass Interstate 380 and downtown Cedar Rapids.

The Edgewood Road portion still has months to go, with an estimated November completion.

The full $200 million extension is supposed to be finished in 2020.