Delays boost Gateway Project cost by $530,000

Due to delays brought on by considerable public comment and redesign requests, the price tag for designing Iowa City's Gateway Project has increased by some 10 percent.

The Iowa City Council today will vote to amend the contract between the city and HNTB Corp., the design company involved with the Gateway Project, to approximately $5.3 million. That marks a roughly $530,000 increase from the original 2010 contract.

Melissa Clow, special project administrator, said the flood mitigation project's National Environmental Policy Act study - intended to be completed in 2011 - wasn't finished until 2013 due to public concerns over the scope and environmental impact of the project, as well as the several redesigns that followed.

'So there's two years of additional time, due pretty much to public agencies' review times kind of lagging and, of course, the additional public comment period at the end of the process,” she said. 'Review times took longer than expected and things did not go as planned.”

Funding for the design services will come from local-option sales tax dollars and a $3 million Federal Economic Development Administration Grant.

The $50 million Gateway Project was born from the 2008 flood that closed down Dubuque Street, the city's main entrance, for several weeks.

Early design plans for the Gateway Project were met with opposition from area residents who live near the project site based on concerns over its size and the possible harm to trees and a bluff next to Dubuque Street.

Following several public meetings and forums, the council approved a scaled-down project that would elevate the stretch of Dubuque Street near City Park to one foot above the 100-year flood level while reconstructing a through-arch style Park Road bridge at the 200-year level.

The council's decision was lower than city staff's recommendation to reconstruct Dubuque Street between Foster and Kimball roads to one foot above the peak floodwater in the historic 2008 flood. At the same time, it was the lowest the city could go to keep a $10.5 million federal grant for the project.

'We were constantly pushing to try to wrap it up,” Clow said. 'When things get delayed like this, there are extra costs, that's extra costs on our consultants part and the extra work that their doing.”

Had the original timeline goals for the project been met, the Gateway Project would be entering year two of construction this spring, Clow said.

Plans remain on track to begin construction in 2016, with work expected to take place through 2018.

l Comments: (319) 339-3175; mitchell.schmidt@thegazette.com