Hunter
01/23/23
Rehabbing one of the pedestrian overpasses on Riverside Drive and building a new equipment maintenance facility are among many capital improvements included in Iowa City’s next fiscal year budget.
The Press-Citizen reports that the city is budgeting over $65 million on major capital improvements. Dubuque Street will be rebuilt from Washington Street to Iowa Avenue, part of the city’s downtown area master plan. The project will narrow the roadway and make it more pedestrian-friendly by improving sidewalk pavement, updating utilities, and enhancing the streetscape.
The plans for Court Street are similar to that of Rochester Avenue, which is undergoing a long improvement project that due to delays and cost increases won’t be completed until 2024. The city plans to put down new pavement, with improvements to the utilities, sidewalks and curb ramps between First Avenue and Muscatine Avenue. The city is staging the project to do the majority of the work during the summer months when school isn’t in session to keep the inconvenience to a minimum around City High. City Engineer Jason Havel said the Court Street project will take over a year to complete.
The pedestrian overpass at Iowa Avenue will be the first one to see improvements. The city is working with the University of Iowa and the Iowa Department of Transportation on the design, which is budgeted at $1.9 million.