The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
CEDAR RAPIDS — The city of Cedar Rapids has secured $25 million in federal funding for ongoing flood control efforts on the city’s northwest side.
The funds — announced Wednesday by Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley’s office — will support flood control improvements along the Cedar River’s west bank between Interstate 380 and the Union Pacific Railroad.
“You can imagine how important this funding is for Cedar Rapids after the city
(was) hit by devastating floods
” in 2008, Grassley said in a video statement. “These federal dollars will be put to good use to strengthen the Cedar Rapids community and protect it from further weather events.”
The allocation comes from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant program.
In a memo sent to Cedar Rapids City Council members, City Manager Jeff Pomeranz on Wednesday highlighted the award as the “largest federal investment to date in the west side of the (flood control) system.”
Army Corps of Engineers funding is fueling much of flood protection construction underway on the east side of the river. Under the Army Corps’ cost-benefit formula, the west side was not eligible for funding since the cost of adding flood control was greater than the value of the buildings it would protect.
The city has roughly $45 million in flood control improvements planned in the west area, the memo states, to complement the city’s larger
$1 billion investment in flood control citywide
.
Key improvements include the construction of a flood levee that will extend along F Avenue NW toward I Avenue NW. To complement that development, F Avenue will be reconstructed to rise over the levee and be converted to two-way traffic and a new roundabout will be added at the intersection of F Avenue and Third Street.
A paved trail will be built atop the levee — including a trail bridge over the Union Pacific Railroad — and the city will add a new multi-use trail connection from the east side of the river near the Tree of Five Seasons sculpture.
The BUILD grant also will support the construction of a flood wall and flood closure gate at the Union Pacific Railroad crossing, as well as stormwater upgrades in the area around E Avenue NW.
“We are one community, and we want to make sure that both the east and west sides of the river are taken care of,” Pomeranz told The Gazette. “This BUILD grant is a big jump start … to keep things moving” on the west side.
Echoing those remarks, Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell expressed optimism that the BUILD award will “accelerate” the city’s flood control efforts, as well as help restore community confidence and vibrancy to an area that devastated by the 2008 flood.
“It’s just terrific news … and certainly a step in the right direction for the west side,” O’Donnell said Wednesday. “For me personally, it’s exciting because it allows us to accelerate toward the completion of something that everyone wants to see get done.”
Many of the planned improvements will take place near the site of the new Cedar Crossing Casino & Entertainment Center, a $275 million development
now under construction in northwest Cedar Rapids near downtown.
The flood control improvements were planned separately from the private casino development, Pomeranz noted, but city staff expect the two projects to be complementary in nature.
Comments: [email protected]
