It’s no surprise that you can’t seem to drive through Burlington right now without hitting some sort of road construction.
Projects are currently underway with both the Burlington Public Works Department and the Iowa Department of Transportation, and more projects are on the way.
Currently, city crews are working on a street overlay project on Garfield from Barrett to West Avenue, and a sewer separation project affecting Division Street between Marshall, Gunnison and 6th and 7th streets. But that’s not all the work that’s happening on Division, according to City Engineer Ryne (Rhine) Thornburg. They’ll be resurfacing the street in addition to separating the sewer line.
“Division Street is going to be disrupted for a fairly long time,” Thornburg told KBUR Talk Show Hosts Steve Hexom and Rob Sussman, “Between 6th and 7th, they’re having to jackhammer through some bedrock so it’s taking [them] longer than anticipated.”
These projects are running concurrently with several projects being undertaken by the Iowa Department of Transportation on Highway 61 and it’s various overpasses and off ramps in town. Work on the Curran Street off ramps on the east side of the overpass have been ongoing since the 20th, and they aren’t expected to finish up for several more weeks. The overpass on 5th street is also being resurfaced. Another DOT resurfacing project is starting on Monday: they’ll be working to resurface one of Burlington’s busiest overpasses: the overpass carrying Highway 61/Roosevelt Avenue over Highway 34.
“There will be two lane traffic each way, during construction, in multiple phases… it’ll be reduced to one lane of traffic each way,” said Public Works Director Steve Hoambrecker.
Compounding the construction issues, Hoambrecker says it’s possible that the Iowa DOT will install a new girder to replace a damaged one on the Eastbound Main Street off ramp at the same time that the other projects will be taking place. That means that two of Burlington’s four highway exits could be closed, with another reduced to two lanes.
Hoambrecker says that increased road fund revenue as a result of the gas tax is partially to blame for the number of road projects.
The construction work should be mostly wrapped up by the end of the summer.
