Three traffic lanes are open on the $7.4 million and nearly three-mile Grandview Avenue Reconstruction project in Muscatine. The improvements to the city’s southend corridor also included new sidewalks and streetscaping work, which will continue in the spring. CREDIT JIM ELIAS
MUSCATINE, Iowa – Grandview Avenue, the city’s primary south-end traffic corridor, is fully open to traffic after two years of construction. Dozens of retail, commercial and industrial businesses were impacted by the nearly three-mile-long Grandview Avenue Reconstruction Project, which stretched from Main Street to Houser Street. Grandview Avenue serves Muscatine as its main traffic artery […]
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MUSCATINE, Iowa – Grandview Avenue, the city’s primary south-end traffic corridor, is fully open to traffic after two years of construction. Dozens of retail, commercial and industrial businesses were impacted by the nearly three-mile-long Grandview Avenue Reconstruction Project, which stretched from Main Street to Houser Street.Grandview Avenue serves Muscatine as its main traffic artery between the city’s south entrance and its downtown business district. More than 40 commercial, industrial and retail companies located on Grandview Avenue – along with dozens of others located a few blocks away – were directly affected by the major construction project. Muscatine’s major employers like Grain Processing Corporation and MUSCO Lighting are located just south of Grandview Avenue, so the new corridor provides better access for employees as well as for deliveries of goods to and from these manufacturers. In addition to its existing businesses served by the new infrastructure, the Grandview Avenue corridor has seen new development including a recently opened Love’s Travel Stop at 2417 Grandview Ave., and the Grandview Senior Lofts, which will open soon at 1925 Grandview Avenue.“Anytime you have construction, you’re impacted,” John Fox, owner of Amazing Images By Sign Pro, told the QCBJ. “Nothing ever goes quite according to plan. It took longer than they thought, but I wasn’t surprised. With Grandview Avenue they ran into big things they didn’t expect, so they analyzed the problems and made a plan to go forward.”Mr. Fox’s business is located at 800 Main St., just a couple blocks off of Grandview Avenue, which he said created traffic detours that caused more of an irritation than anything else.Down the road at 1106 Grandview Ave., Greg Harper of Harper’s Cycling and Fitness is enthusiastic about the changes the project brings.“It’s a huge improvement for the whole southend because the Grandview Avenue corridor has needed it,” said Mr. Harper. “In front of us, we actually gained a three-lane road where it was previously only a two-lane road. So we gained that benefit and the benefit of five-foot sidewalks on both sides of the street which we didn’t have before.”Mr. Harper told the QCBJ he doesn’t think his business was adversely affected by the construction because they are more of a destination shop. He added that it wasn’t difficult to get to his location as long as people followed the detours. When they were inaccessible for a week or so, he said contractors were very accommodating to let in a shipment of bikes or to create access through neighbors’ driveways.Heuer Construction, Inc., of Muscatine, was awarded the $7.74 million contract by the City of Muscatine. The project included removing and replacing pavement from Main Street to approximately 200 yards past Houser Street, adding sidewalks, and additional street lighting and streetscaping to make the Grandview Avenue corridor more inviting for residents and visitors entering Muscatine’s southend. Traffic lanes have been improved to three lanes including turn lanes for safety. The last piece of roadway construction at the intersection of Grandview and Houser Street was completed and traffic signals at the intersection of Grandview and Oregon Street were turned last month. Work on the new sidewalks and streetscaping will continue into this spring. Brian Lee, owner of Precision Machine, Inc. said the change to three lanes is a much needed improvement given the amount of traffic on Grandview Avenue. “It’s taken some getting used to the three lanes, but all-in-all, it’s a fantastic upgrade,” he added.
