East Moline residents joined city and project leaders at the Rust Belt Commons on Thursday, Sept. 12, to help pick finishing touches for that critical area of an ambitious transformative downtown plan that will be “under construction before you know it.”
The two-hour open house is the latest in a series of public input sessions hosted by the City of East Moline. It keyed on the Rust Belt Commons component of the $30 million Greater Downtown East Moline Revitalization Project.
That project – which could begin construction in 2025 and be completed in 2027 – is being designed and built to make the downtown and riverfront area more walkable, bike-friendly and beautiful. (The public is invited to visit www.downtowneastmoline.com to learn more, sign up for updates, and share comments.)
To improve the Rust Belt area, make it more accessible and integrated with the greater downtown area, East Moline is working with the design and engineering team to develop a series of improvements.
Among them is reconstruction of 12th Avenue between First and Seventh streets, a new bike and pedestrian path, improved intersections at Third and Seventh streets, and significant upgrades to the railroad crossings to improve safety and accessibility.
Thursday’s sessions dialed down to such details as the choice of furniture, materials, landscaping, outdoor event space, and railroad crossing improvements for The Bend area. That reclaimed eastern riverfront manufacturing area has become known for its vibrant restaurants, entertainment venues and unique character, the city said.
“It’s been tremendously valuable to hear the public’s comments,” East Moline City Engineer Tim Kammler told the QCBJ.
The sessions are designed “not to tell us how to build a street,” he said. “We’re asking about the look and the feel and the functionality and it’s been wonderful hearing from everyone.”
Bids could soon be let
As planners sort through the public’s most recent comments and suggestions, the fourth and final public input session is being planned for this fall. It will focus on the Bend Boulevard Extension component, Mr. Kammler said.
After that, “We’re going to be under construction before we know it,” he said. In fact, a January bid letting is scheduled for the first first phase of the overall transformation.
That initial project will focus on streetscaping into The Bend because it was the easiest to get through the Illinois Department of Transportation since it includes only surface additions such as walkways, furniture and trees, Mr. Kammler said.
Completion of that first phase and the rest of the project is not just important to his city, Mr. Kammler said. “This is a win for East Moline and for the Quad Cities, and I think it’s just wonderful to be a part of it.”
The East Moline plan has been a long time in the making for Mr. Kammler and other city leaders. East Moline created a downtown plan in 2020, but repeated efforts failed to capture the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant to pay for it. Finally, in 2022, the city was awarded $23.7 million in RAISE funding. (East Moline will invest the remainder of project costs under the terms of the grant.)
The planning process hit the ground running in the summer of 2023 when the advisory committee was formed and a public meeting was held. The ongoing series of public input sessions conducted since are critical to the design and construction plan for the transformational plan, project leaders who spoke with the QCBJ on Thursday said.
Bend is ‘a blank slate’
A critical project leader is Emily Munday, a civil engineer focused on holistic transportation and sustainable stormwater design for Crawford, Murphy & Tilly (CMT). That firm is the primary engineering consultant for the project and Ms. Munday is the East Moline planning and construction project manager.
“The whole Bend area is a blank slate,” she said Thursday, and public input collected at that and other sessions “give the city at least something to go off of to really beautify the whole thing.”
Ms. Munday has been part of the East Moline project from the start and it is her first time leading a major project for CMT, which is based in the Peoria, Illinois, area and has an office at the Quad Cities International Airport in Moline.
“It’s really exciting to see it from the ground level and work all the way through,” she said of the East Moline plan.
“I’m an engineer, so I think about designing all of that stuff, but I think the most exciting thing for me is the potential that this brings,” Ms. Munday added. She’s had a taste of that in building other successful sidewalk and trail projects. “Getting to see people have the opportunity to walk and bike safely makes me so happy. That’s the biggest high,” Ms. Munday said.
Project is ‘transformative’
“I like that this project is going to be transformative for the community,” she added. “It’s going to have such a bigger impact … We reconstruct roads all the time but this is more than just reconstructing a road. There is just so much potential and so much opportunity this brings just from us being able to improve the area.”
To do that public input is essential. “I could sit down at my computer and design something but if it doesn’t meet the needs of the people that actually live and work there, what’s the point?” Ms. Munday said. “I can look at numbers and design it to the numbers, how many cars or whatever, but if it’s not going to help the community, then it’s a waste of money.”
In addition to CMT engineers and the City of East Moline, members of the overall plan’s project management team include: Image, Inc.; SWT Design; Hutchinson Engineering, Inc.; Terracon; and American Surveying & Engineering, Inc.
Under the current construction targets, once the streetscaping is done at The Bend in 2025, Rust Belt work will start in 2026. The Bend Boulevard extension work will start in 2027.
