Bettendorf businesses fight I-74 bridge improvements
A unified plea for Mississippi River bridge improvements ran into its first organized opposition Tuesday: A group of Bettendorf business owners who told state transportation officials that Interstate 74 improvements are unnecessary, overpriced and harmful to the local economy.
The comments came at an Iowa Transportation Commission hearing in Bettendorf. Quad-City mayors and business leaders hoped to convince the seven-member committee that sets capital improvement priorities for the state's Department of Transportation, or DOT.
"We are one economy in the Quad-Cities," Davenport Mayor Charlie Brooke said when it came time for him to address the commission. "We need bridges to make the community whole."
But dozens of business owners in downtown Bettendorf fear that a proposal to widen and realign the I-74 bridge, which connects the city and the state to Illinois via Moline will wipe them out, explained Brian Gillette, a spokesman for Downtown Businesses of Bettendorf, which has 58 business owner-members.
Worse, there is no need for it, he told the panel. Other steps that would be far less costly than rebuilding the bridge could be taken to reduce traffic or slow it down during peak-usage hours when most problems occur.
Some of those steps include cameras that photograph speeders, who could then be sent citations, barring heavy trucks and buses during peak hours, redirecting traffic from downtown entrance ramps during peak hours and asking major employers and delivery services to schedule their traffic around rush hours.
"This bridge project is a huge mistake," Gillette said. "You should save the taxpayers money for a project the taxpayers really need."
Proposals to change the bridge also took fire from a group called the Save the Memorial Bridge Committee. Spokeswoman Kathy Potter called the current spans historic and a Quad-City icon. Proposals to rebuild them have been pushed by business and government interests with little public dialogue.
"The community is better off to have a single voice," Aller said. "I encourage you to work together."
The bridge now carries 74,000 vehicles per day "and is severely over capacity," according to information provided by the Bi-State Regional Commission. Its design flaws include narrow lanes, a curved alignment and no shoulders, according to a consultant, CH2MHill of Chicago, which was hired to study the I-74 corridor in the Quad-Cities.
Last year, the consultant said that because of the way the current bridge is built, it cannot be widened. It recommended three alternative alignments for a new six-lane bridge between Moline and Bettendorf.
Decker Ploehn, Bettendorf's city administrator, said the study of an alignment for a new bridge into the city is still ongoing. No final decisions have been made, and there is no solid estimate on the cost of a new span.
Some of the ideas broached by Gillette to relieve congestion on the existing bridge are being studied, Ploehn said. Other steps are already planned to relieve congestion. One of them involves removing tolls from the Centennial Bridge this summer, a move expected increase to usage on that four-lane span between Davenport and Rock Island and to reduce traffic on I-74.
As for the business owners' concerns, Ploehn said he has scheduled a meeting with them and DOT representatives. Tuesday was the first time he had heard the actual concerns of downtown business owners about a new bridge, Ploehn said.
"It is all based on concepts now, and we're a long way from determining the actual costs or alignment," he said. "It is premature to say which businesses will be impacted and where they will be impacted."
But Gillette said that each of the alternatives recommended by the consultant will close businesses for blocks in either direction. Those that managed to survive would be wiped out by city plans to revitalize downtown with an idea that includes redirecting the flow of traffic on Grant and State streets.
"Ultimately, what you will have is a smaller tax base downtown and land taken over by a city government that has a poor record of attracting new economic development," he said.
Tom Saul can be contacted at (563) 383-2453 or tsaul@qctimes.com.