Early surveys start at Highway 151's Springville corner

Amy Bartels was glad to hear that survey crews have been at work lately at Highway 151's Springville intersection.

“Awesome,” Bartels, 51, of Monticello, said Tuesday afternoon. “So there is hope.”

Bartels' husband, Roger Bartels, 42, died at the intersection in February 2009. He was on his way to work at Allegra Printing in Cedar Rapids when a van crossing the highway on Springville Road slammed into his car.

On Tuesday, Amy Bartels and other relatives planned to meet near the intersection to release balloons on what would have been her husband's 46th birthday. It's the third year they've done it.

“If I can keep people thinking about it, they might actually do something,” she said. “My family and friends have just kind of adopted it.”

Cathy Cutler, a planner for the Iowa Department of Transportation's Cedar Rapids district, said crews have surveyed the intersection area as the first step toward the construction of an interchange with an overpass. Their work will help refine design proposals that were first shown to Springville residents about two years ago.

“Those were just sketched up by the engineer, and now we find out what's actually feasible to build,” said Cutler.

Cutler said the construction of a bank and other businesses near the intersection will require modifications to the early designs. After making the changes or eliminating impractical designs, the department should bring some feasible options back to nearby residents this winter.

“Very likely the local road, Springville Road, would go over Highway 151,” she said.

The project won't be funded or scheduled until its feasibility is determined, which could take years.

Ray Bartels was the second person to die at the intersection since 2001 and the fourth since Highway 151 was four-laned in 1993. The intersection was ranked the 98th-worst in the state in a 2007 transportation department study.

Springville residents have called for improvements, but many also opposed modifications to the intersection proposed in 2010 that would have interfered with large trucks' turns and blocked Springville Road northbound.