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Streets, Highways & Bridges
This street view shows the updated Sixth Avenue corridor. (Photo provided by Marion, Iowa)
Would you create a new road to mitigate construction traffic? One Iowa city did By DANI MESSICK | The Municipal
An old scrap metal facility’s brownfield land has finally been reincorporated into its city’s streetscape by way of a brand-new road. Tom Treharne, community development director and acting city manager for the city of Marion, Iowa, said the project was almost 10 years in the making, and it runs deeper than the brownfield cleanup since it allows for the revitalization of the whole main corridor of the city. “When I first arrived in Marion in 2001, there was an old railroad that ran through the community,” he explained. “It served pretty heavy industrial sites, including the scrap metal facility, which used to be at the edge of town. With the growth that we’ve (experienced) 52 THE MUNICIPAL | OCTOBER 2021
over the years, the edge of town became closer to the center of town, so we had this scrap metal facility basically right on our main drag. It created a lot of problems, a lot of dust, dirt would drag out into the city on a daily basis, their semis would sometimes block the street.” Then about 15 years ago, the situation began to change in the city’s favor. The railroad decided to abandon the lines due to lack of usage, which gave the city the opportunity to acquire the entire railroad corridor by then winding its way through the heart of the community.
