Highway 100 extension on schedule and budget

CEDAR RAPIDS — The $200 million, 8-mile-long Highway 100 extension is on schedule and budget, with the first of the two-phase project expected to open next year or in early 2017, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation.

Of immediate note: All lanes of traffic on Edgewood Road NE — where a 'single-point urban interchange' is being built over Highway 100 — should be open to traffic at the end of the year if not before Christmas, Jim Schoebelen, district engineer in the Iowa Department of Transportation's Cedar Rapids office, told city officials this month.

In January, the DOT will open bids on the paving contract for the first phase of the project, which takes the road from Edgewood Road NE west over the Cedar River and south to Covington Road. Earlier contracts on the first phase of the project have involved grading and the construction of interchanges at Edgewood Road NE and Covington Road, overpasses and the bridge over the Cedar River.

Schoebelen said the 'very long curved bridge' over the river 'will really stand out.'

It is about half finished, and work on it will continue through the winter.

He said the bridge is 'extra long' to provide room for trails underneath, to help with flooding issues and to better accommodate wildlife.

The DOT district engineer also highlighted the aesthetic features of the project's overpasses and bridges, which include concrete pavers, brick facing and thicker railings that the city's Visual Arts Commission provided advice on, he said.

On the east side of the Cedar River, the highway extension will come with curbs and gutters and a median barrier. On the west side of the river, the highway will have a grass median and ditches, he said.

The highway is considered a 'priority one' highway, and so will have no intersections along the way. Getting on and off will be at four interchanges — Edgewood Road, Covington Road, E Avenue and Highway 30.

During a presentation to the Cedar Rapids City Council's Infrastructure Committee, council member Scott Olson asked Schoebelen if the project was on schedule and on budget, and the DOT engineer said it was.

Council member Ralph Russell asked if all outstanding lawsuits, which were filed by environmentalists to block the highway, had been resolved. They had been, Schoebelen said.

He said he wanted to 'brag a bit' about the steps the DOT had taken to reduce the project's impact on the environment.

The steps included wetland preservation and woodland preservation, a tweak of the highway alignment to avoid threatened species, a reconstructed turtle pond and an underpass so turtles can make it from summer to winter homes and back.

'I think we can all be very confident that it was an overall net gain in terms of environmental stewardship,' Schoebelen said.