River Drive might reopen Tuesday
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By Linda Cook | Monday, May 05, 2008 |
While crews continue to work today to remove water and an earth dam from River Drive, the main Davenport thoroughfare could be open for travelers as early as Tuesday.
Art Bartleson, street maintenance supervisor for the City of Davenport, managed workers Sunday while they used an end loader and a wheelbarrow to remove sandbags from near East 2nd and Iowa streets.
Additionally, pumps began water removal from River Drive on Sunday morning, Bartleson said. Pumps worked Sunday on Iowa, Pershing and Perry streets; River Drive and Marquette Street; at the Howell Street bridge on River Drive; and near the Government Bridge at River Drive and Federal Street, he said.
River Drive will remain closed today, he said.
“We’re hoping to have the earth dike removed and have the remaining sections of water pumped off River Drive so we can open it up as soon as possible,” he said, adding that River Drive probably will be open Tuesday or Wednesday.
This morning, crews will start removing the earth dike from River Drive, he said.
Detours remain at Federal Street and River Drive and between U.S. 61 and Highway 22, Bartleson said. “Everything between those two points is closed except for business traffic,” he said.
Nineteen employees from the city’s street department were working Sunday, with nine or 10 from the sewer department and five from the fleet maintenance department, he said, adding that fleet and sewer employees have been working “’round the clock” for about two weeks.
City crews weren’t the only people scattered along River Drive on a sunny and warm Sunday afternoon. Various walkers and families strolled along the area to see the floodwaters and wildlife along the way.
Waterfowl created a tranquil scene along the swollen Mississippi River. Quad-City Audubon Society member Herb Metzler, of Davenport, binoculars in hand, continued watching the parade of birds. He watched Sunday as birds, including Canada geese, mallard ducks and white pelicans, fed and swam.
“The white pelicans have only started migrating here in the last couple of years,” Metzler said. “They feed in a flock. They play a game of ‘follow the leader’ .... it’s like a synchronized ballet.”
Metzler said he spotted a rusty blackbird, unusual in this area, which he recorded on the Audubon Web site.
Jeff Zogg, meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said that more rain is on the way — and that could contribute to second crests in local rivers.
The high Sunday was 68 degrees and the low was 34 under sunny skies. The first rain probably will arrive Tuesday evening in conjunction with a cold front coming south from the northwest. “That front will stall out just to our south in the vicinity of the Iowa/Missouri border during late Tuesday or early Wednesday,” Zogg said.
When that happens a second system will approach the Quad-Cities from the southwestern United States. That will bring a threat of widespread rainfall from Wednesday into Thursday.
“The rivers will still be on their way down,” Zogg said. “How the rivers will respond will depend on how much rain falls — and where.”
“The heaviest rain is going to tend to fall from the Quad-City area southward of Highway 30,” he said. “The location of the rainfall will be different with this coming system.”
RIVER LEVELS
Here’s a look at Quad-City river stages Sunday night. All of these forecasts could be affected by approaching rainfall this week:
Mississippi: 17.7 feet and falling (flood stage is 15 feet). The forecast: Falling to near 17 feet by Tuesday morning — about a half-foot per day.
Rock at Moline: 12.5 feet and falling (flood stage is 12 feet). The forecast: Continued slow fall, below flood stage Thursday evening.
Wapsipinicon near DeWitt, Iowa: 12.6 feet and falling (flood stage is 11 feet). The forecast: Below flood stage by Thursday.
Joslin, Ill.: 13.2 feet and falling (flood stage is 12 feet). The forecast: Below flood stage Saturday evening.
The city desk can be contacted at (563) 383-2450 or newsroom@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.
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