Marion Chamber will push for I-380 Tower Terrace interchange

One of the regional priorities for the Marion Chamber of Commerce in 2011 will be advocating for a Tower Terrace Road interchange on Interstate 380.

Representatives from Cedar Rapids, Hiawatha and Marion plan to make a presentation next week for the Iowa Transportation Commission when it meets in Dubuque. They will urge the panel to include the proposed interchange in the state's five-year road construction plan.

Plans call for Tower Terrace Road to be extended east from I-380 to ultimately connect with Highway 13  just north of 35th Street. Most of the right of way for the Marion portion of the link has already been purchased.

Marion Chamber President Jill Ackerman, in an interview before her organization's annual meeting Wednesday at the Longbranch Hotel & Convention Center, said the Tower Terrace Road project is critical to the development of a northern commercial corridor in Marion.

“All of our residential growth has pushed to the north and we need some commercial businesses up there to serve our residents,” Ackerman said. “Our central corridor as it sits today is packed full. We don't really have any more room to do commercial development along the central corridor.

“The link between I-380 and Highway 13 will be extremely important for the development of the Marion Enterprise Center off Highway 13.”

Ackerman said having Cedar Rapids, Hiawatha and Marion united in pushing for the interchange and Tower Terrace extension will go a long way toward making it a reality.

“There's strength in numbers,” she said. “We will be able to hold more water in Des Moines.”

When a Tower Terrace interchange has been proposed in the past, the Iowa Department of Transportation has thrown cold shoulder to the idea. Cathy Cutler, IDOT field services coordinator in Cedar Rapids, has said construction of the interchange is “not justified at this time,” citing reduced traffic on I-380 after the June 2008 flood and the impact of the economic recession.

George Lake, president of the Marion Economic Development Co., said IDOT needs to be convinced that constructing the interchange will spur development.

“In other communities, development has exploded when an interchange is completed on an interstate,” Lake said. You have to have one before the other will occur.”

While other road projects like the Highway 100 extension in Cedar Rapids will require construction of water, sewer and other infrastructure to spur commercial development, Lake said the Tower Terrace Road link to Highway 13 will be different.

“The infrastructure is already in place along a good percentage of the corridor,” he said. “Commercial development should happen fairly quickly because so much is already in place.”

Lake said he does not see Highway 100 and the Tower Terrace interchange competing for IDOT funding. He said both projects are essential to economic development in the region.