More than 50 business owners attended a meeting at the QC Waterfront Convention Center Monday (1/13) to hear how road realignment during construction of the new Interstate 74 bridge will impact traffic in downtown Bettendorf in the coming years.
The Bettendorf Business Network sponsored the session, in cooperation with the Isle of Capri Casino, Inc. and the City of Bettendorf.
Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT) Project Manager Doug Ricks made the presentation, which included slides illustrating changes coming to Bettendorf’s downtown to prepare for the new bridge across the Mississippi River.
Much of the demolition work has been done, Ricks said, and work on downtown utilities should be completed yet this year.
Major construction for rerouting State Street is expected to begin in 2015. The one-way State Street will be diverted north to run parallel to Grant Street from 10th Street to 17th Street. After the relocated State Street opens, the existing thoroughfare will dead end on either side of the bridge, where a berm will be built to support bridge piers.
Engineers expect to keep State Street, as well as Kimberly and 14th Street, open to traffic during the bridge construction.
Work on sanitary and storm water sewers along several downtown streets will be done by the city this year in preparation for the new roadway and bridge work.
The goal is to start work on the new I-74 bridge in July 2016, connecting the reconfigured ramps when work is completed three to five years later, depending upon which construction schedule is adopted – a three- or a five-year plan.
Finishing the project in the shorter time will save money and get the disruptions over sooner, Ricks said, but would likely involve more traffic complications during construction of the new six-lane span (which will have shoulders and a bike/pedestrian walkway).
A glass-walled elevator would be built at the city's expense to link the recreational trail along the riverfront with the new bridge's walkway. A ramp also would connect the new bridge with the trail.
Once the new built is complete, the old bridge will be demolished.
