The final plans are nearly complete for the new I-74 bridge, and they'll be on display Wednesday and Thursday in the Quad Cities. Officials from Iowa and Illinois, and local agencies, will host two public information meetings.
Doug Rick, project manager for the Iowa Department of Transportation, says construction on the new bridge isn't scheduled to start until 2017, but some preliminary work will start along River Drive in Moline this summer, and next year a project is set for downtown Bettendorf.
"It's more real than ever because we have a design, we have money in our programs in Iowa and Illinois. So that brings about some level of confidence that things are going to start happening."
Rick says the new bridge will cost about 1.2 billion dollars, and correct the deficiences of the current bridge, which is too narrow and has no shoulders.
"There are not enough lanes to handle the amount of traffic that we want to get across the river. On any given day you want to have enough lanes to allow traffic to get across. Plus our ramps are all very short which creates issues with traffic merging into mainline interstate traffic - that's a safety concern."
The new bridge is scheduled to be completed in 20-20.
Wednesday's public meeting will be held at the i Wireless Center in Moline from 4 until 7 pm, with Thursday's at the Waterfront Convention Center in Bettendorf, also from 4 until 7 pm.
(drawing courtesy of the Ia Dept of Transportation)