Highway 30/100 interchange plans climb $1.9 million

CEDAR RAPIDS - Transportation planners did not make a recommendation about whether federal money should cover increased costs for an on again, off again and back on again interchange connection project at the south end of the eventual Highway 100 extension.

The Corridor Metropolitan Planning Organization's executive committee on Wednesday reviewed a request from Cedar Rapids to put $943,000, which is the remaining balance for non-trail projects in the fiscal 2019 and 2020 budget, to connect 80th Street SW and 16th Avenue SW to the eventual Highway 30/100 interchange.

The committee decided to forward the request without a recommendation to the full policy board of the Corridor MPO, which has representatives from local communities and Linn County and decides how federal dollars are spent. The policy board will have final say on the plan when it votes on the full suite of federally-funded Transportation Improvement Projects during a 1:30 p.m. meeting, May 19 at Cedar Rapids City Hall.

When the request was made, Cedar Rapids also proposed Corridor MPO defund $553,000 in the fiscal 2018 budget slated for work to upgrade Sixth Street SW, which is in an industrial area.

The Iowa Department of Transportation had the interchange connection for local roads in the initial Highway 100 designs, but later removed them for a variety of reasons, including proximity of another interchange and modest traffic counts. Rather than access Highway 100 at the closest point, traffic from the south on 80th Street SW and 16th Avenue SW would have to use a new interchange at E Avenue, about a mile north of 30.

Cedar Rapids, the Corridor MPO and Fairfax pressed to restore the interchange connections, claiming the absence undercut the efficiencies created by the Highway 100 extension. Cedar Rapids eventually agreed to foot a $5.6 million bill to reincorporate the connections.

A proposal from Cedar Rapids engineer Nate Kampman included in Wednesday's Corridor MPO budget detailed modification to the design of the connections, which will bump the project cost up from $5.7 million to $7.5 million, or about 33 percent. Cedar Rapids is responsible for that amount.

The added costs are for a new alignment that 'would restore a more direct connection from 16th Avenue SW to U.S. Highway 30 and Highway 100 (and) realign 16th Avenue SW to join as a continuous through route with 80th Street SW to the new interchange,” Kampman stated in the proposal.

Jim Schnoebelen, Iowa DOT district six engineer, said the agency is aware of this and is accommodating the modifications.

'The department would not have an objection to that realignment (of local roads) but I don't currently anticipate that it would be included as a part of the department led projects,” Schnoebelen stated in an email.

Highway 100 from Edgewood to Covington Road is expected to be complete and open in early 2017, while the second phase of work from Covington to Highway 30, including the new interchange connections, should be complete in 2020. The 7.5 mile extension of Highway 100 from Edgewood to Highway 30 is budgeted at about $200 million.

Also of note, some Corridor MPO members have lamented the lack of recreational trails included as part of the Highway 100 extension.

Linn County Supervisor Brent Oleson 'shared his concerns that there are no plans for a trail that would be the primary trail to follow Highway 100. There is an opportunity to follow Highway 100 to Morgan Creek and the Cherry Hill Trail. The trail should go in first before all of the development to attract people to the area,” according to minutes from an MPO meeting in March.

Jim Halverson, a consultant on the Highway 100 project with HR Green, stated trails have been defined for the area, and local governments could take action to initiate construction before Highway 100 is complete, according to the minutes.

The Iowa DOT has made accommodations for trails but is not funding nor including them as part of the Highway 100 extension project.