State schedules long-awaited Tower Terrace Road interchange project for 2022

For local officials, the arduous road to construction of a Tower Terrace Road/Interstate 380 interchange has reached a new milestone.

The Iowa Transportation Commission on Tuesday approved the state's fiscal year 2018-2022 Iowa Transportation Improvement Program, which plots out close to $3.5 billion in highway right-of-way and construction investments statewide.

The list of projects, updated annually, now includes for FY 2022 an interchange on I-380 for Tower Terrace Road in Hiawatha, which has been proposed to manage growing traffic congestion in the area.

'We've worked very hard to get to this point. There have been a lot of meetings, a lot of communication, a lot of metro communities working together for a common reason. It's certainly going to benefit all of Linn County,' Hiawatha City Administrator Kim Downs said.

The Tower Terrace Road project joins a growing list of Corridor I-380 projects in the coming years, including a $15 million Forevergreen Road interchange in North Liberty in 2018 and the massive five-year, $300 million overhaul of the I-380/I-80 interchange planned to begin in 2019.

Last fall, in an effort to secure state assistance for the Tower Terrace Road project, leaders from Linn County, Cedar Rapids, Marion and Hiawatha, as well as the Corridor Metropolitan Planning Organization, presented a preliminary plan for the project, which included a collective $5 million pledge to the $20 million project.

Cathy Cutler, transportation planner with the Iowa DOT's District 6, said that commitment played a role in the DOT's recommendation of the project to the state commission.

Federal funding for the project — about 80 percent of the state's cost — has not been approved yet. That is anticipated to take place next summer, she said.

'I think we would be able to satisfy the federal highway policy points,' she said.

The first attempt to get the interchange project added to state programming in 2002 was pulled by the DOT due to limited funding resources, Cutler said.

In response to a 2007 request to add the project to the state plan, the DOT commission said there was insufficient evidence to show that existing roads and nearby interchanges could not handle the traffic at the time.

However, Commission Chairman John Putney said economic growth has increased the need for another interchange onto I-380 in the area.

'That area in Linn County — particularly Cedar Rapids, Marion and Hiawatha — is really a dynamic area, and we can foresee a lot of growth and good things to come from big transportation,' he said. 'It looks like there's going to be a lot of opportunity for economic development and more traffic.'

Cutler said the Tower Terrace Road bridge over I-380 would be constructed in a way that will allow room for future widening on the interstate from four lanes to six.

But before work begins on the Tower Terrace Road interchange project, Downs said some local projects, including traffic signal updates and lane configurations, will need to take place.

In addition, the state next month will seek bids on improvements to I-380's northbound Boyson Road offramp, which will help handle growing traffic in the area.

'That's obviously a Band-Aid until we can get Tower Terrace constructed,' Downs said.

When the Tower Terrace Road interchange is completed, the state may consider an overhaul of the aging Boyson Road interchange, Cutler said.

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