Highway 100 extension locked in to state's highway plan

The Highway 100 extension is in the new state highway plan, and this time proponents say it's for real.

Motorists will be driving on the first 3.8-mile stretch to Covington Road in 2017 under a new state five-year highway plan.

The long-elusive project has been placed in the plan and stripped out of the plan before. It also faces a federal lawsuit challenging federal environmental studies. But community leaders and state officials are confident the road will be built.

At its meeting Tuesday in Des Moines, The Iowa Transportation Commission, as expected, put more than $186 million in its 2013-2017 Transportation Improvement Program for the roughly $200 million project. The entire eight-mile project from Edgewood Road to Highway 30 could be completed in 2019, assuming funding is continued and extended.

“It is not just a plan - it's fully funded,” said Cedar Rapids City Manager Jeff Pomeranz. He said the project's impact could be fairly compared to the construction of Interstate 380 through the Cedar Rapids metro are or I-235 through the Des Moines metro in terms of its transformative impact, bringing development and jobs.

Work on a new Cedar River bridge that is part of the project's expected to go to bid in September 2013, according to Cedar Rapids Director of Public Works Dave Elgin. It will take about one year to build, and could continue through the winter.

Elgin said the bridge will be needed first to bring earth from the west side of the Cedar River to build up the road bed on the east side.

Motorists can expect the route to be a timesaver and a detour route when accidents result in temporary closures of I-380 through Cedar Rapids. It is also expected to reduce congestion and accidents on I-380.

City and civic leaders had been stalking the project for about 30 years, encountering environmental issues, funding delays, and even an intergovernmental spat between the city and the Linn County Conservation Board over the project's impact on the Rock Island State Preserve. (see timeline)

A lawsuit by the Sierra Club of Iowa and two local residents in federal court is still pending, and Sierra Club attorney Wally Taylor was hopeful that a dismissed state lawsuit might be reinstated.

So many obstacles have been overcome over such a long period that the breakthrough moment seemed a little unreal, Linn County Supervisor Linda Langston told the commission.

“There's that amazement to get to this point in time,” she said.

Langston said having the timetable set will be a huge benefit by providing developers and land owners in Cedar Rapids with the ability to make plans.

The project could also be a potential lifesaver in Cedar Rapids in the event of a flood similar to the one that shut down all but one of the city's bridges four years ago, Langston told the commission.

Iowa Transportation Commission member Amy Reasner of Cedar Rapids said she doesn't expect the project to be taken out of the state's transportation plan again, even though annual funding could be reduced in a future five-year plan if the state loses a significant amount of federal highway funding to the new austerity mood in Washington.

“This is big,” Reasner said.

Another big Linn project

The addition of more than $50 million to begin the Highway 30 Mount Vernon-Lisbon Bypass made Tuesday an even better highway funding day for Linn County. That project, too, was pulled out of the state's five-year plan as priorities shifted to highways for economic development.

The funding would complete grading for the six-mile-long bypass in 2017, with an expected final price tag around $100 million. Lisbon city leaders recently finalized their decision on the site of the Lisbon interchange, putting it at Adams Avenue on the east edge of the city rather than Sutliffe Road nearer the middle, Transportation Planner Cathy Cutler of the Iowa Department of Transportation said.

Mount Vernon City Engineer Dan Boggs told the commission the city is glad that the long wait is over.

“It's put a lot of businesses on hold and as far as our city planning made some difficult situations and now we have a direction we can go with and I really appreciate that,” Boggs said.

Urban beltway

Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett said that seeing the 30-year-plus Highway 100 effort finally bear fruit after the efforts of multiple mayors, city councils and city managers demonstrates that the city should never give up on important goals.

“It's been a long time since the DOT put this kind of money in Linn County,” Corbett said. He said the project will be an enduring benefit to community.

While the business-backed project never seemed to capture the popular imagination, Reasner said it completes a kind of urban beltway ring that was badly needed.

“If we want to be the second largest city in Iowa, we have to plan for growth, we have to plan for truck traffic,” Reasner said.