{"id":5676,"date":"2014-09-18T11:08:16","date_gmt":"2014-09-18T16:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs2.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/?p=5676"},"modified":"2015-08-20T10:37:45","modified_gmt":"2015-08-20T15:37:45","slug":"it-could-have-been-worse-the-centennial-bridge-freeway-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/2014\/09\/18\/it-could-have-been-worse-the-centennial-bridge-freeway-proposal\/","title":{"rendered":"It Could Have Been Worse: The Centennial Bridge Freeway Proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"

As any Quad-Citian who regularly commutes over the Mississippi can tell you, the Centennial Bridge repair project is ongoing, a new construction project has started on the I-74 off ramps in Moline, and the barges keep stalling traffic over the Arsenal Bridge.<\/p>\n

But did you know that things could have been much worse?<\/p>\n

What if the Centennial had been a highway bridge<\/em>?<\/p>\n

In August of 1964, plans for a 4-lane freeway through town were presented to Davenport City officials:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to relieve the congestion on existing streets and offer people in Davenport, and those driving to it, a good, time-saving, money-saving route\u201d<\/p>\n

—Times-Democrat 14 Aug 1964 p.3<\/p>\n

The freeway would run north from the Centennial Bridge, between Gaines and Brown streets, cross Kimberly road between Brady and Harrison streets, then join Brady just before reaching I-80. Interchanges would have been built at Locust Street near St. Ambrose College, and north of Duck Creek on Harrison Street, with underpasses at 8th<\/sup> and 14th<\/sup> streets.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThe main purpose of the four-lane divided freeway was to provide a more efficient route for traffic bound for various points in Davenport, rather than helping cross-country vehicles through the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

—Times-Democrat 16 Oct 1964 p. 10<\/p>\n

\"Freeway1964Aug\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The proposal was discussed and ultimately tabled. But the issue came up again a decade later, though I-280 had opened in Iowa on October 25, 1973 and the I-74 corridor was underway.*<\/p>\n

\u201cTransportation studies showed that by 1985, some kind of improvement in traffic capacity must be achieved along these general corridors. \u201c<\/p>\n

—Times-Democrat 22 Apr 1973 p. issues<\/p>\n

The plans this time included a north-south freeway with a similar path to the 1964 proposal, plus an east-west central business bypass expressway district, which would have run from East River Drive, through 5th<\/sup> & 6th<\/sup> Street and end at Rockingham Road.<\/p>\n

\"Freeway<\/p>\n

As the Times-Democrat<\/em> explained, \u201cA freeway is a four-lane divided, limited access highway. An Expressway is a bit more sophisticated form of freeway, with totally controlled access.\u201d (22 Apr 1973)<\/p>\n

Some citizens were concerned that the proposed plan would fail to attract people to the downtown, might displace many people from their homes, discourage mass transit use, and have high construction costs.<\/p>\n

Other alternatives were to \u201cdo nothing\u201d or to widen and improve Brady and Harrison streets.<\/p>\n

Doing nothing was not the popular choice:\u00a0 in July 1970, the Times-Democrat had reported, a record 32 vehicle accidents occurred on Brady Street. Vehicle counts showed that during peak periods more than 25,000 vehicles used portions of Brady Street.<\/p>\n

\"Freeway2\"<\/p>\n

Despite the hassle of construction, street improvements looked like the better option:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn general, traffic conflicts will be reduced, delays will be reduced and density will be reduced. This will enable the two streets to carry much more traffic with less congestion as a pair of one-way streets than they possibly could as two two-way streets\u201d<\/p>\n

—Study released by the Motor Club of Iowa, March 1972<\/p>\n

Brady and Harrison streets were turned into four-lane one-ways between River Drive and Lombard Street for a 90-day trial on\u00a0February 8th, 1973. The trial was made permanent. On May 1st, 1984, the one-ways were\u00a0extended beyond Lombard and\u00a0a new three-lane highway was constructed from Brady near 59th<\/sup> Street and connected with Harrison Street south of 37th<\/sup> Street.\u00a0 The southbound highway was eventually called Welcome Way.<\/p>\n

So, when you’re stuck on one of our bridges—or on the way to one—just remember:\u00a0 it could be worse . . . and it does, eventually, get better!<\/p>\n

_________________________<\/p>\n

*This corridor was completed through Moline on December 10, 1975.<\/p>\n

________<\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

“Davenport Freeway May Cost $24 Million.” Times-Democrat 14 August 1964: 3.<\/p>\n

Davis, Paul. “Report: Freeway Safer, But Poses Major Problems.” Times-Democrat 17 July 1975: 23.<\/p>\n

Jonson, Bruce. “The New Fuss Over A Freeway.” The Times-Democrat 22 April 1973: issues.<\/p>\n

“Map Shows Route of Freeway.” Times-Democrat 16 October 1964: 10.<\/p>\n

“Report Warns Of ‘Do Nothing’ Alternate.” Quad-City Times 2 March 1975: 4E.<\/p>\n

“Scrutiny On Freeway Study.” Quad-City Times 26 June 1974: 27.<\/p>\n

Willard, John. “One way to deal with traffic congestion.” Quad-City Times 21 October 2003: B1.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As any Quad-Citian who regularly commutes over the Mississippi can tell you, the Centennial Bridge repair project is ongoing, a new construction project has started on the I-74 off ramps in Moline, and the barges keep stalling traffic over the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[1214,40,366,1212,1215,1213,1217,1216],"class_list":["post-5676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-history","tag-arsenal-bridge","tag-brady-street","tag-bridges","tag-centennial-bridge","tag-harrison-street","tag-i-74-bridge","tag-one-way-streets","tag-welcome-way"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXc-1ty","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5676"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6369,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5676\/revisions\/6369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}