CEDAR RAPIDS — Cedar Rapids is marking a record year of investment in flood protection, with approximately $90 million in local and federal spending for fiscal 2024, fueling major projects on the east side of the Cedar River and making headway on the west bank, too.
Work is complete on approximately 35 percent of the permanent flood control system — a network of levees, walls, gates and pump stations costing around $1 billion.
The work is designed to fortify Cedar Rapids against flooding should the city experience another disaster on the scale of the devastating 2008 flood.
Army Corps of Engineers funding is fueling much of construction underway on the east side of the river. Under the Army Corps’ cost-benefit formula, the west side was not eligible for funding since the cost of adding flood control was greater than the value of the buildings it would protect.
When the Army Corps wraps up east side work by the end of 2026, the overall system will be 70 percent complete, Flood Control System Program Manager Rob Davis said.
“They bring a lot of horsepower,” Davis said of the federal money.
Around $70 million of the funds spent in fiscal 2024 is the city’s funding share — a mix of local, state and federal money.
Davis said the city budgeted another approximately $90 million for fiscal 2025, which begins July 1 and ends June 30, 2025, so it’s likely to be another record year.
What’s happening?
Cedar Lake
Crews are expected to wrap up work this year to build a levee through Cedar Lake — a project that started in 2021 and was at the time the largest contract the city had bid, costing $21.02 million.
It’s all being done with city funding, but Davis said the Army Corps will give the city some credit toward the required local match for federal grants.
The project is unusual in that it involves building a levee through a body of water. Construction involved building a coffer dam and de-watering the lake, then building a pipeline to the Cedar River to pump out groundwater.
“That’s getting us really close to where we'll be able to say that area north of Quaker can be protected, so that'll be a really good milestone,” Davis said.
By the end of the year, the Army Corps should be mostly finished with a levee running along McLoud Run, connecting the flood protection system almost entirely from Interstate 380 at J Avenue NE through Cedar Lake, Davis said.
There is one small gap between McLoud Run and Cedar Lake where a pump station will go. It will be bid separately.
Czech Village, New Bohemia District
After the city built a detention basin where Riverside Park’s playground and skate park once stood, the new entirely concrete skate park opened last fall. Detention basins hold and slow stormwater before feeding it to pump stations, reducing the work pump stations must do.
Thanks to the detention basin, the pump station’s size could be reduced in size, saving the city $6 million. When complete, the pump station will be the city’s largest, with four pumps capable of pumping 36,353 gallons per minute.
Construction is now underway on a pump station alongside the nearby flood wall. The whole project — including the basin, pump station and reconfigured skatepark — will cost $27.2 million.
Crews also are building a gate across the CRANDIC Railroad, a city and Army Corps project on the east side of the carrier’s Cedar River bridge. Traffic impacts are minimal, but it will affect some parking in Lot 44 in the New Bohemia District.
This is the city’s second railroad gate after the Union Pacific one that goes into Quaker Oats over the river.
Northwest Neighborhood
The Cedar Rapids City Council last week awarded a $5.33 million contract to Anamosa-based Boomerang Corp. to install an earthen levee at Ellis Lane NW and replace the existing fueling station in front of the city’s maintenance building at Ellis Park.
The underground fuel tanks there need to be replaced because they are at the end of their useful life, Davis has said.
Ellis Boulevard NW eventually will be realigned so it goes up and over the levee. Work is slated to start this summer and wrap up by Nov. 30, 2025.
Federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars will be used to fund construction as part of the council’s commitment in 2021 to direct $10.2 million in ARPA funds toward flood protection for the Northwest Neighborhood.
“Congrats to the Northwest Neighborhood, you’ve got a major project starting there,” Davis said.
The other ARPA-funded project will elevate a segment of O Avenue NW over the top of a levee. An ADA-accessible ramp will run from the raised O Avenue NW to the Northwest Gateway and Memorial Plaza.
That project has been delayed in part because it was where the city piled debris after the August 2020 derecho. The debris had to be properly documented for reimbursem*nt with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Downtown
In the downtown, crews soon will transplant the Tree of Five Seasons monument, moving it approximately 80 feet east of the current location and closer to First Street NE on the east bank of the Cedar River.
That will make way for a permanent, full-height flood wall to be built from First Avenue East to Interstate 380 with an elevated park allowing views of the river and shielding the flood wall from view.
The project includes construction of a $10 million pump station at A Avenue NE, as well as roller gate installation at E and F avenues underneath I-380.
Also as part of the contract, a removable, stackable floodgate is being installed at Second Avenue, similar to the one on Third Avenue. The Second Avenue Bridge will be closed to through traffic this summer for construction.
Also, E and F avenues have closed underneath I-380 for construction. The project near First Avenue and First Street NE will cost an estimated $30.29 million overall, a mix of Army Corps funding and the city’s local share from property taxes.
“We’ll be able to connect from the Quaker Oats’ project coming underneath the interstate all the way to First Avenue,” Davis said.
This contract is now the city’s largest in the flood control system, Davis said, surpassing the Cedar Lake project.
Eighth Avenue Bridge
Having locked in long-awaited federal funding to rebuild the Eighth Avenue Bridge, city staff are now designing the structure.
The U.S. Department of Transportation in April awarded a Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient and Costsaving Transportation (PROTECT) grant toward the estimated $76.1 million project to build the “Arc of Justice” Bridge.
The new cable stayed bridge will be designed for a 100-year life span and will provide a key river crossing in times of flooding. It will have a single pier — instead of the current seven piers — to improve the flow of the river and reduce upstream water levels.
Davis said staff are evaluating cost options and doing environmental clearance work with the Federal Highway Administration.
“Once the east side is done, that will be a higher priority,” Davis said.
The city likely will enter into a contract for the bridge construction by the end of 2026. Construction likely will start in spring 2027 and take three years. The bridge's completion is necessary for final certification of the east side.
Fewer sand barriers
When flooding threatened the city in 2016, 9 miles of temporary HESCO-brand sand barriers were used to protect the city.
Each segment of the flood control system that comes online decreases the number of HESCO barriers that need to be used when flooding threatens, Davis said.
Flood control construction began in Czech Village and the NewBo District because those areas are at the lowest point in the city. Work in those historic neighborhoods is nearly complete.
To further reduce temporary measures needed when river waters rise, city staffers in the coming years will look at doing underground work on pipes and gatewells, which Davis said are “not as flashy but offer a lot of benefit from a flood protection standpoint.”
That’s especially true for areas prone to flood risk with temporary protection. For instance, Davis said it’s easy to put HESCO barriers in the Time Check Neighborhood in northwest Cedar Rapids, but there are a lot of intakes where water can emerge and trickle underneath a sand barrier.
Already, the permanent flood protection in place would allow the city to use half of the temporary measures used in 2016, Davis said. In three years after Army Corps work is complete on the east side, that’ll be further reduced to about one-fourth.
“We’re building the right pieces now — the pieces that require the most amount of temporary interim protection,” Davis said.
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