BREAKING: Coralville proposes new I-80 interchange.... For the visual appeal of the Iowa River Landing?

Doing the job the local liberal paper fails to do......  Tying stories together....

Ladies and gentlemen, the Iowa City DePressed Citizen posted a story today in their online edition about how the city of Coralville is proposing a new interchange for Interstate 80 at 1st Avenue.

It reads like a propaganda piece, traffic volume statistics are cited; "serves as a main artery for people traveling to University of Iowa...." is mentioned; Coralville city leaders claim the interchange is inadequate and poses a real safety hazard for drivers.

Is it really?  Statistics supporting that safety hazard claim weren't listed.  Hmmmm.....

The Department of Transportation just got done adding another lane for eastbound traffic and an additional lane for westbound traffic in that area.  The shoulders for the ramps were redone, but otherwise the ramps were untouched.  Apparently the ramps as they are, are handling traffic flow and safety just fine.  With all the construction that was done through that area, if there were necessary changes to be made for the ramps, that work logically would have been done.  No, it wasn't included in any phase of the construction.  Why?  Because it wasn't part of the plan.  Hmmmm......

Did the Iowa City DePressed Citizen think to inquire about that with Coralville City officials or the Iowa Department of Transportation?  Apparently not.

So the DePressed Citizen just prints the city of Coralville proposal in their publication, taking what the city says at face value......  The DePressed Citizen did contact an Iowa Department of Transportation official who like city officials also indicated a need to improve the interchange (hmmmm.....  Job justification?), but that's where the journalistic inquiry stopped apparently.

Cost for the design of a new interchange is being reported at $2.1 million.  That's just to design it folks.  That's not construction.  A question DePressed Citizen reporter Emily Schettler should have asked, "Why wasn't a redesign of the ramps included in the recent construction?"  And if the reporter isn't bright enough to ask it, the editor is supposed to be.

Coralville and IDOT have agreed to split the costs for the design evenly.  At least the DePressed Citizen got that piece of information in the report.

Many of the people commenting on the story asked some excellent questions and made valid points.

Deborah Thornton:  "Shouldn't this have been addressed in the most recent rebuild of I-80 through Coralville? How many times can we redo a road? How much money was just spent?!"

Donald Baxter:  "This is another example of a wrong-headed willingness to spend millions of dollars to support developments that are unsustainable in the first place. IRL is receiving millions in tax revenues as the result of its balloon TIF, now the Coreofevil needs more to handle the traffic they *think* it might generate." 

Football season ticket holder Mark Sluka:  "The  bottleneck is the light at 1st Ave and Highway 6, not the 1st Avenue I-80 interchange. Before a game there is a lot of incoming from I-80 but that is short-lived and easily handled by the troopers. After a game there is no problem at the interchange." 

The whole timing and feel of this proposal is just odd.  We're talking about Coralville *leadership* here after all....  There's more to this story and we're not being told what it is.  Mark Sluka is right about where the real traffic issue is and potential safety hazard - 1st Ave and Highway 6, NOT the Interstate interchange.  Baxter is onto something in mentioning the Iowa River Landing development and Thornton is correct in asking why the interchange wasn't already addressed with the recent construction. 

It's about tying the stories together folks.  What the DePressed Citizen is SUPPOSED to do, but doesn't. 

Think about how Coralville city leaders are always talking about the *visual appeal* of the IRL.  Given the very controversial history of that development, I contend that city leaders have decided they want to dress up the Interstate.  I say the truth behind this interchange proposal is being hidden from public scrutiny.   We're not getting the real scoop here and the DePressed Citizen doesn't care to dig for it. 

You can't tell me that IDOT puts all the work into putting in two additional lanes on I-80, that they're somehow ignorant about Iowa game days, that they're clueless about the University putting a new medical branch facility in the IRL, that they failed to consider Coralville's growth......  And so they don't bother to put in an improved interchange?

Really?  

No, there's something else to this story.  That interchange would have already been part of the reconstruction plans if there was a valid need.  There would already be a plan on the books.  And we hear construction phase plans all the time, Coralville did it with Highway 6, North Liberty did it with Highway 965.   So with that being said, surely we would have at least heard a public statement along the lines of, "Phase 1 of the Interstate roadway between Highway 965 and 1st Avenue will be completed in the summer of 2011.  Phase 2 of the roadway between 1st Avenue and Dubuque Street will be completed in the fall of 2011.  Phase 3 for the interchange will begin in 2012. 

But there was no mention of a Phase 3.  The Iowa Department of Transportation didn't have any plans for  an interchange redesign, I contend they determined there was no need. 

So now Coralville's *leaders* walk in, after I-80 work has been done, they've got this pet project called the Iowa River Landing costing taxpayers millions and millions of dollars, and they decide they want some window dressing for it?  

Tying stories together......

There was an article in the DePressed Citizen on Saturday about Coralville's proposal to redevelop the Old Town area.  No tough questions asked by the DePressed Citizen there either.  My take on the story can be found by clicking here.  How much will this development cost?  Paper didn't ask.  Why did the city move the city's parks and transit building from there to a different part of town?  Paper didn't ask.  How much did that move cost?  Paper didn't ask.  Here's an eye-opening quote from that DePressed Citizen puff piece talking about Coralville's Old Town area:  "It's close to the university and close to the (Iowa River) Landing and we're going to have a connection with the Landing," said council member Tom Gill.

We're going to have a connection with the Landing......   Means you can't have an industrial looking parks department and transit building in a new redevelopment containing more retail shops with council desired visual appeal and "connection with the Landing." 

We're going to have a connection with the Landing.....  Means getting the state to agree to a new interchange, because you gave $11 million taxpayer dollars to retailer Von Maur to move to the IRL. 

There's much more to this story than we're being told folks.  More details need to be uncovered. 

The valid need for a new interchange must be demonstrated.  Where is the risk assessment, where's the data showing accidents are happening on game days?  PROVE the safety hazard!  AS IF IDOT didn't already evaluate this when they put in new lanes for traffic?  Until we see that, taxpayers need to tell city councilors "NO DEAL." 

The city is already in debt to the tune of $222 million.  Now the city is spending a million more on just the design - not the construction, that'll cost even more - of a new interchange.  The city has spent millions to relocate a parks department and transit building.  The city is spending untold millions more to redevelop Old Town Coralville, because We're going to have a connection with the Landing.....

This story, is (cough) developing.......

 

Comments

[randy crawford]

Preview of Coming Distractions: Eventually, it will also occur to our local geniuses that there are about 10 megatons of hydrocarbons stored and piped in at any given time at the SW corner of the interchange, courtesy of Williams/Magellan pipeline company. This isn't exactly a great place for dozens of fuel-bearing semi's to be transiting in and out on any given day, not to mention the effects of a pipeline rupture as the infrastructure gets rustier and rustier. Most likely, it will take the incineration of several dozen innocent passersby before the risk factors involved manage to penetrate their learned city planning skulls. Or, they can wait a few years and commission a separate study for $10 million to begin looking into to what should have been relocated decades ago to an area of lower traffic and population density. The longer they dither, the more it will cost, and the more there will be rending of garments and gnashing of teeth when they finally realize they have to tend to the obvious, like it or not.