Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.COUNCIL BLUFFS — Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle wants Iowa to consider raising the elevation of Interstate 680 just east of Omaha to avoid the type of flood damage that struck the roadway this year.
He also asked the Iowa Transportation Commission to consider doing the same for parts of flood-affected Interstate 29.
The mayor addressed a commission meeting Tuesday at the Hilton Garden Inn in Council Bluffs.
Suttle said western Iowa relies on Eppley Airfield in Omaha, just as Omaha relies on the Interstate system in Iowa.
"Let's figure out how we can work together so that we can deal with the flooding situations in the future, but also assuring that our transportation system stays in place if we do have another catastrophic event like the flood of 2011," he said.
Suttle's remarks were part of the public comment portion of the meeting. No action was taken on his request, and the commission members did not respond during the meeting.
A 3.1-mile stretch of Interstate 680 between Omaha and Crescent, Iowa, was massively damaged during the summer's Missouri River floods and remains closed.
The Interstate runs perpendicular to the flow of the Missouri, and floodwaters undermined its roadway and caused it to collapse.
Suttle, a civil engineer by training, suggested raising parts of the Interstates to 1 foot above the so-called 100-year flood level.
Commissioner Barry Cleaveland of Council Bluffs, who works in Omaha, expressed skepticism.
"I don't know if you mitigate the flood with a road. I think you mitigate a flood with a levee," he said later. "I think it's cost-prohibitive. I think you are looking at several billion dollars to do that."
Cleaveland did not know how high I-680 would have to be raised to meet Suttle's request.
"I think a foot above wouldn't have put it out of harm's way this go-around," Cleaveland said.
Another issue that came up during the meeting was a possible U.S. Highway 30 bypass south of Missouri Valley. Representatives of the city asked the commission to consider such a project in the future.
They said many residents had opposed a bypass in the past but are far more supportive now as Highway 30, which functions as the Harrison County town's main street, has a traffic count of about 9,900 vehicles per day — a pre-flood number.
This summer, even more vehicles were funneled through downtown.
"Not only do we have a lot of traffic, it is growing at a very substantial rate," John McCurdy, of the Southwest Iowa Planning Council, told the commission.
The commission also awarded a $876,510 economic development grant to Mills County for improvements to a stretch of 190th Street between U.S. Highway 34 near Pacific Junction north to Jesup Avenue. The street runs north-south and west of the Interstate.
Improvements to the road could draw a motel or a truck stop and also help nearby businesses like the Mid-America Motorplex, said Richard Crouch, a Mills County supervisor.
"With the new (Missouri River) bridge that is scheduled to open in 2013, this could be a great development (tool) for that area," Crouch said in an interview after the funding was approved.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1310, andrew.nelson@owh.com
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