CBJ Newsmakers: Tower Terrace Road project path remains unclear

The opening of the newest Interstate 380 interchange at Tower Terrace Road, on the north edge of the Cedar Rapids metropolitan area, represents a key milestone in a transportation development plan decades in the making.

And, according to local leaders, it will also pave the way for dramatic economic development as the overall 8.3 mile Tower Terrace extension project continues to move forward, albeit by fits and starts.

Interchange design and development

The new Tower Terrace Road interchange opened June 22, culminating 20 years of the project’s development.

Officials from the Iowa Department of Transportation and local government leaders gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the opening of the new $22 million interchange, which has been under construction for more than a year.

“We’ve come a long way, baby,” said Marion Assistant City Manager Kim Downs, who was among the key leaders in bringing the Tower Terrace Road interchange to fruition during her time as Hiawatha city administrator and city manager from 2005 to 2022.

Ms. Downs noted that several government agencies have been working on the Tower Terrace Road project over the past several years, including the Iowa DOT (IDOT), the cities of Hiawatha, Robins, Marion and Cedar Rapids, and Linn County.

Few local officials have been engaged with the Tower Terrace interchange project longer than Ms. Downs. She highlighted several traffic studies in the past two decades, including a 2013 IDOT report that concluded a Tower Terrace interchange was justified by growing traffic numbers in the area. That report reversed findings from a similar IDOT report in 2006.

The development of the Tower Terrace interchange has been closely tied to the Boyson Road I-380 interchange, which is itself set for a major upgrade beginning in the summer of 2024.

Ms. Downs noted that she had been involved for several years in conversations with the IDOT because of the rapid growth in Hiawatha since the mid-2000s.

“At one point, we had 22,000 to 24,000 cars a day that were entering and exiting from that (Boyson) interchange, which it was never designed to handle,” Ms. Downs said.

The situation became so severe, Ms. Downs said, that traffic would often stack up on the northbound Boyson Road exit ramp, and cars would line up on the interstate waiting to exit.

“They were forming their own lanes,” she said. “That off ramp was initially meant for one lane. We had actually taken video and pictures of people hanging out on the interstate waiting to get to the off ramp, and that’s really what started getting people engaged at the DOT. But we had already done at least two interchange justification reports prior to that.”

A project completed in 2017 to widen the exit ramp to two lanes alleviated the issue, but only to a certain extent, she said.

Technically speaking, a Tower Terrace Road I-380 interchange was in the cards since I-380 was born. Cathy Cutler, transportation planner in the Iowa DOT’s District 6 Office in Cedar Rapids, said that when the interstate was built through Hiawatha in the mid-1970s — over some objections from city residents at the time — basic work was done at Tower Terrace Road for a future interstate interchange.

As growth continued through the northern portion of the metro area, the case for a Tower Terrace interchange became increasingly stronger, leading to formal approval of the project in 2013.

The Tower Terrace interchange uses a new diverging diamond design, which offers several safety and traffic movement advantages over other types of interchanges. In diverging diamond interchanges, left turn movements are unopposed, and the configuration results in greater ramp storage. Traffic signal timing is greatly simplified, and the cycles of the signals are shorter, according to IDOT reports.

The project includes $5 million from local municipalities, Ms. Cutler said. Cedar Rapids, Marion, Hiawatha, Robins and Linn County contributed about $200,000 in local funds, and Hiawatha and Cedar Rapids used about $2 million each from federal allocations to make road improvements on each side of the interchange — Cedar Rapids’ project from Miller Road east to I-380, Hiawatha’s from North Center Point Road west to the interstate.

The projects weren’t lengthy, but they were important, Ms. Cutler said, Since the projects were intertwined, the interchange, Cedar Rapids’ project to the west and Hiawatha’s project to the east were all built under one contract, she noted.

Future plans

While there’s been significant progress on Tower Terrace Road, much remains to be done.

From North Center Point Road east to Highway 13, just one segment of Tower Terrace Road has been funded — a stretch from C Avenue NE in Cedar Rapids to Alburnett Road in Marion, with an estimated cost of $15.6 million being split between Cedar Rapids and Marion.

Construction on that segment is already under way.

But without a significant funding boost, other segments of the plan — particularly in Robins, a smaller community unable to fully bond for a project that would include two bridges — will prove fiscally challenging.

Still, the long-term vision for Tower Terrace Road hasn’t wavered, as a statement on the project’s website stresses.

The consortium of local communities that have driven the project so far remains strong as well, leaders say.

Newsmakers update

The path to completion of the Tower Terrace Road project remains unclear, but federal funding could significantly close the project’s remaining $56 million funding gap.

Liz Burke, manager of the Corridor Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), said in the wake of the RAISE grant decision, the MPO submitted a $44 million application in August for a federal Rural Surface Transportation Grant.

Local officials were hoping to receive a decision on that application in December, Ms. Burke said.

Portions of Tower Terrace remain unfinished, but one section — from Meadowknolls Road to Alburnett Road — is fully graded and awaiting a paving bid.

Grading is well under way on another section, from C Avenue to Meadowknolls Road, but funding hasn’t yet been established to complete the paving of that portion, Ms. Burke said.

The status of other sections remains largely unchanged, Ms. Burke said. As part of the construction of the Interstate 380 interchange, Tower Terrace was improved west to Edgewood Road and east to North Center Point Road in a cooperative project involving the MPO and the cities of Cedar Rapids and Hiawatha.

But east of there, major sections remain unfinished — a section from North Center Point Road to Robins is not yet improved, while a segment from Robins Road to Council street, running through both Hiawatha and Marion and passing over Dry Creek and the Canadian National rail line, hasn’t yet begun. Marion has built a portion from Alburnett Road to the west leg of Winslow Road, but awaits funding for a Tower Terrace Road segment connecting the two legs of Winslow Road, including a bridge over Indian Creek. Another portion of Tower Terrace from the east side of Winslow Road to 35th Street is completed, but the final portion, from 35th Street to Highway 13, hasn’t yet begun.

Funding remains a key issue, particularly for the smaller communities of Hiawatha and Robins, Ms. Burke said — and bridges are an expensive component of any road project.

“It’s been challenging coming up with the funding,” she said, “but it’s nice to see the communities working together to find a way to make this happen.”