Iowa City's lower Muscatine Road could undergo major reconstruction

IOWA CITY – Iowa City's Lower Muscatine Avenue has been targeted for a $5.6 million reconstruction.

Plans call for a new roadway, lighting, 8-foot sidewalk, storm sewer system, sanitary sewer and other improvements between Kirkwood Avenue and First Avenue in southeast Iowa City, according to a city memorandum released Thursday.

Sycamore Street would be realigned to create a more perpendicular intersection with Lower Muscatine Road, and a traffic signal would be added there.

The expanding Kirkwood Community College campus and resulting demands on the transportation network is one of the reasons the work is needed, Public Works Director Rick Fosse wrote in the memo. The street also has minimal storm sewer facilities, deteriorating pavement and does not meet current design standards, he wrote.

The City Council is scheduled to vote March 20 to set an April 3 public hearing on the project. Construction could start this May and last until September 2013.