Davenport makes progress on Duck Creek trail system

Work continues in Davenport on projects related to the Duck Creek trail system that will safely connect bike trails through the city. Clay Merritt, director of engineering and capital projects with the City of Davenport, spoke with Our Quad Cities News via Zoom to talk about the upcoming project at Division Street and give a progress update on the project at Eastern Avenue.

“Last year we submitted a grant application to the state of Iowa,” he said. “The state DOT has some rolling applications and so we are always looking at ways to make improvements to the trail system. We submitted one to put what we refer to as an underpass along Duck Creek on Division Street, so we can eliminate that at-grade crossing and what we call pedestrian light that's there. This is in advance of some of the other work that we've been doing along the way.”

“The biggest one that is coming to an end here soon is part of our Eastern Avenue Bridge replacement project over Duck Creek. We're actually elevated the bridge to be able to put an underpass underneath it, so people can safely cross Eastern without having to go to the light. We're just doing these systematic upgrades throughout our system and obviously our preference is if we can leverage our local funding and our local dollars to available grants that are out there at the state or federal level-that's that's one of the things we want to do.”

Merritt said the decision to use underpasses instead of overpasses comes down to the location. “It's all location specific. Generally speaking, an underpass is going to be less expensive. I would also say this is more anecdotally, what we found over time is, in speaking with other cities, honestly, most people more people would use an underpass than an overpass.”

“Unlike the Eastern project, this one in particular doesn't have any bridge work, so that's going to be one of the big components. This one that will be coming up is specifically about getting people safely underneath the bridge, so that we can remove that at-grade crossing. Essentially, we're looking to eliminate vehicular and pedestrian traffic at that crossing point.”

He said Division Street is a project location because it has so much vehicle traffic, making crossing it more difficult. “I would say that Division Street is a main arterial roadway, so it is heavily utilized by vehicles. Anytime you have a potential point of conflict, that's a safety item. If you take a look at the Duck Creek Trail system, all we'll have left on our side, if I remember correctly, is Division and Marquette.”

“We're kind of early in the process here, so what's in front of our City Council is a grant agreement,” Merritt said. “The paperwork, essentially, if you want to call it that, is us agreeing to terms that we will fulfill these obligations in order to get reimbursed that amount of money through the DOT system. We're currently in the design of the project itself, so I would say late winter, early spring, we'll probably complete design and go out for bids.”

“More than likely, if you like to look at our council agenda, you will see this pop back up again in terms of the city council approving the plans and specifications pending that council approval. We'll then go out to bid, then we'll come back to the council again with a contract for them to actually construct the project. This is kind of procedural at this point, but I'm hoping maybe at some point in the summer, early fall, we can actually get construction underway. We already have the budgeted funds for it. We're just working ourselves through the design process and this procedural grant paperwork process as well. But those things can run concurrently.”

Merritt says there are many steps between lining up financing and starting construction. “We are in the early stages of the process, so oftentimes when people see things on our council agenda, they think we're automatically jumping into construction, if you will, and that's not necessarily the case. It doesn't mean we're not doing it. It's just us following the process along the way. So I would look for construction of this project next year as we move forward. We're just trying to systematically look at opportunities to both enhance the trail system.”

Merritt said the project at Eastern Avenue is nearing completion and is expected to be completed by the end of November. “Both roadway projects get the roadway open back up. That's our primary responsibility at the moment, so the contractors focus on completing roadway related components. I know has been a pinch point, especially for those that it's not a good detour. You either go to Jersey Ridge or you go to Harrison and Brady, and those are pretty far apart. But once we get that opened up, the contractor will then look at putting pavement down for the trail system and trail system itself. We're looking to have everything wrapped up by the end of November.”

“I would point to our Goose Creek Trail that opened this year, so we were able to successfully connect kind of a north-south corridors. Goose Creek successfully lets you get from the Duck Creek Trail, get you successfully underneath Kimberly Road, which was a huge impediment in terms of safe crossings. A few years ago, we actually completed a previous phase of Goose Creek, so you can get underneath 53rd without having to cross. Then it takes you up to another trail section that we completed in the last few years, which parallels Brady and then connects you to Veterans Memorial Parkway.”

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