Streets, Highways

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) 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.

Businesses along Seventh Avenue noted during peak hours no one could pull in to visit them because traffic was so backed up. (James Heires/Wikimedia Commons; https://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)

The initial plan was to develop a trail where the unused railroad tracks sat, but in the end, a study proved that another roadway might serve the community even better.

“As city leaders, it is important to balance the maintenance and upkeep of what is already existing while being visionary and forward-thinking to position a community for future success,” said Amber Bisinger, communications manager for the city of Marion.

“By virtue of owning the railroad, we were able to create a brand-new street alignment that would balance and complete our existing main thoroughfare that was developed in the ’50s and ’60s. This plan was put in place called the Central Corridor Plan.”

With the plan in hand and in partnership with local developer Genesis Equities, the city approached the owner of the scrap metal facility about relocating to a new site in another part of Marion more suitable for their line of work.

Two roundabouts, one at the entry to Sixth Avenue and one at the exit, also strategically made use of the old scrap metal facility’s land, following assessment and cleanup of the property. The newly designed Sixth Avenue now allows for another long-awaited project to begin.

“The impetus for the plan was to get all the heavy traffic off Seventh Avenue,” Treharne explained. “We had 20,000 cars a day on Seventh Avenue, and under the old alignment, it was extremely dangerous. It was where most of our accidents would occur, and it was a really tough situation trying to get all those cars through the community during peak hours. We used to get complaints from businesses that no one could pull in because traffic was so backed up.”

The problem was that the storm sewer under Seventh Avenue was nearly 100 years old and, due to the usage needs of Seventh Avenue, had never been redone.

“This project replaces underground infrastructure that is over 100 years old, improves walkability, accessibility and overall safety. It also enhances our city’s core, making it attractive to potential businesses, visitors and residents,” Bisinger said. Prior to the project, an old scrap metal facility had contaminated the entire property surrounding the future roundabouts. (Photo provided by Marion, Iowa)

The ribbon cutting for Sixth Avenue took place on Aug. 6. (Photo provided by Marion, Iowa)

The Seventh Avenue project will not only repair the lines, but also continue to offer additional redevelopment and investment opportunities along that corridor as well as Sixth Avenue.

“By creating the Sixth Avenue corridor and being able to redirect traffic, we’re going to be able to make Seventh Avenue a much more desirable corridor,” said Treharne.

Still, the project wasn’t without its battles. Treharne recounted many town hall meetings where residents stood up in passion, fervently against the project, for fear that Seventh Avenue would be shut down entirely.

“The public was very apprehensive of the project, but it did pass so we knew there was community support for it, but we had a vocal group that was definitely against it,” Treharne said. “At the time in 2010, it was difficult to get the message out, so we weren’t able to tell our story very easily, and a lot of people made a lot of assumptions that weren’t true. Even up until the last, we had people thinking we were going to close (Seventh Avenue) down.”

Seventh Avenue was closed for infrastructure work, and traffic redirected to the newly created Sixth Avenue. In this way, the flow of transportation to the city wasn’t impeded by the need for the new sewer lines.

The project has cost nearly $20 million, but Treharne believes it’s been worth it.

“We knew once we put the public investment, the private would follow,” Treharne said. Today the area along the redeveloped road has a Starbucks, Your Pie Pizza, Arby’s, Marriott Hotel and strip malls. “From a redevelopment perspective, we nailed it.”