Bid on levee piece of Cedar Rapids’ outdoor riverfront amphitheater easily beats cost estimate

CEDAR RAPIDS - The levee-building piece of the city's outdoor amphitheater project on the west bank of the Cedar River has gotten a good piece of news.

On Tuesday, the City Council awarded low bidder Gee Grading & Excavating Inc. of Cedar Rapids the contract for the levee work at a price of $805,074, or more than $300,000 less than the engineering estimate of cost, which was $1.14 million.

The levee work between Third and Fifth avenues SE between the river and First Street SW is slated to begin after the Freedom Festival ends on July 4.

By late July or early August, city officials say dump trucks and earthmovers will begin working to create a lawn that gradually slopes up from the river to First Street SW and reaches about 13 feet above the street at its highest point.

Engineering plans call for 41,000 cubic yards of dirt to be brought to the site, which is enough to cover a regulation football field with 25 feet of dirt, city officials say.

The levee portion is expected to be complete this fall, although it won't provide flood protection until the rest of the city's proposed flood-protection system is connected to it. Construction of the amphitheater portion - the final design of which is still in the works - will take place in 2012.