DOT aims to reopen flooded Iowa interstates before winter

Iowa is shifting transportation resources to the repair of interstate highways and bridges damaged by summer-long flooding on the Missouri River in a flat-out race to reopen them before winter.

The stretches of I-29, I-680, and other highways that have been inundated by Missouri River flooding since June have finally become accessible to Iowa Department of Transportation engineers except one stretch of I-29 in in the Blackbird Marsh area near milepost 55, Iowa Department of Transportation spokeswoman Dena Gray-Fisher said.

DOT crews began inspecting bridges and culverts a week ago. They've  begun cleaning sediment off of long stretches of I-29. They've also been hauling off junk ranging from dog houses to LP gas tanks and chemical barrels, Gray-Fisher said.

Iowa's never experienced this type of flooding for the Interstate system," said Gray-Fisher, a member of the DOT's flood recovery team. "There was never this much damage, never this duration."

The cost of repairs is impossible to estimate at this time, Gray-Fisher said. The DOT is holding emergency bid-lettings every Wednesday with the goal of reopening the interstate highways before winter, even it can't reopen all four lanes. Meeting that goal would concentrate what would ordinarily take about two years - one for excavation and grading, and another for construction - into a few short months, she added.

The state wants to get the interstate highways open because of the huge cost to the economy of the highway closings, Gray-Fisher said. It also needs to get the work under contract quickly because the Federal Highway Administration has indicated its 180-day window for flood repairs to be 100-percent federally reimbursed will end on Nov. 21.

Iowa Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal asked Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood in a letter on Sept. 6 to modify the the deadline, saying flood waters had only begun to recede enough to evaluate flood repair needs.

High water still prevents engineers from inspecting some of the bridges and culverts that may have been weakened or damaged by scouring during the floods, Gray-Fisher said, and some sections of interstate may be unreachable for repairs because of damage to intersecting roadways that provide the only means of access.

The huge amount of work required in such a short period is expected to take precedence over some other DOT projects, Gray-Fisher said, possibly delaying some of them.

"The goal is to get as much recovery work done as possible before winter using emergency contracts," Gray-Fisher said. "But the extent of the damage will ultimately define the duration of full recovery."

In the DOT's Cedar Rapids District 6 office, transportation planner Cathy Cutler said the district's only design engineer has not been diverted to flood recovery work. Cutler is unaware of any projects that will be delayed by the change in engineering priorities. She said it's possible the DOT may be able to hire consulting engineers to assist if projects with tight timetables encounter delays.

The most severe pavement damage has been on the east-west stretch of I-680 west of Crescent, where large slabs of pavement were dislocated by flood waters.

It's damage that would look familiar to those who traveled Highway 1 between Mount Vernon and Solon after the June 2008 Cedar River flooding washed out approaches to the Cedar River bridge, Cutler said, except on a larger scale.

The I-29 closure has disrupted the ties between Iowa and Nebraska towns along the Missouri River that for years have served as extended communities, Gray-Fisher said, and forced some employers to contract for buses to help employees commute over great distances because their regular commute routes were blocked.

The DOT has set a first meeting with contractors this week to discuss "constructibility issues" for the I-29 repairs, according to the DOT's weekly flood repair progress bulletin.