Project of the Week: Grande Avenue SE

Grande Avenue SE has been around long enough that when you pull up the asphalt surface, there are still remnants of the brick road underneath.

Thanks to Paving for Progress, the road is sure to have many more years ahead of it.

Work began this week on installing new asphalt on the north side of Grande Avenue SE in Wellington Heights. The work stretches from 3^rd Avenue SE to 20^th Street SE.

This marks the second phase of repairing Grande Avenue, after City crews repaved the south side of the street in 2025.

"With having a center island on Grande Avenue, we are able to break it up in sections, which allows us to give residents better access and shorter road closures," says Streets Supervisor Tyler Adams.

Right now crews are using a skid loader to peel up the old road surface and load it out. In the process, they are exposing the original brick surface that the road had in much earlier days. Next week, a paver will come in to pay down the new surface.

The entire project should be finished before the end of the month.

"Paving for Progress gives us a chance to get to the residential roads that are in bad shape and get new asphalt on them, instead of patching the holes over and over," he says. "That's why it is important to have programs like this."

Fixing The Roads

The Paving for Progress program uses a strategy to rehabilitate, proactively preserve and fully restore our community's roadway and sidewalk system. Cedar Rapids voters passed a one percent sales tax for street repair that went into effect in 2014; since then, the program has invested more than $260 million into fixing more than 131 miles of streets, many of them residential.

Residents often ask how streets are selected for repair each year. The City uses a 10-year management plan using pavement condition data collected on every street in Cedar Rapids. The data is collected by a vehicle that drives the surface of the roads and collects data on texture, pavement distress, and roughness.

Fresh data is collected every two years, and the plan is updated accordingly. Key Goals include:

• Fully reconstruct some of the roads in worst condition
• Perform less costly preventative maintenance to extend the life of additional roads, investing in those roads before they reach the end of their service life
• Make improvements to residential neighborhoods that have long been neglected

It was through this process that the wear and tear on Grande Avenue was observed and scheduled for repairs.

"The City is very grateful for residents' support of the Paving for Progress program," says Doug Wilson, Engineering Manager for Paving for Progress. "Without the local option sales tax being approved by voters twice, the program wouldn't exist, and streets like Nassau Street SE would continue to deteriorate.

"Instead, we have been able to repair so many streets over the past 12 years," he says. "Residents tell us that they are very appreciative of the City working on their street, and of the efforts by the City staff to communicate with the neighborhood throughout the work process."

You can learn more about the Grande Avenue project here. Learn more about Paving for Progress here.

Project of the Week puts a spotlight on work happening all over the City every day. Each week, we will take a closer look at projects that are investing in our community's roads, trails, Flood Control System, and more. See previous installments here:

June 11: O Avenue NW Time Check Elevation Project
June 5: Nassau Street
May 28: Cedar Lake
May 21: Tree of Five Seasons Park
May 14: 20th Street NW
May 7: 18th Avenue SW
April 30: Alliant Energy LightLine™
April 23: 42nd Street
April 16: The 3rd Avenue Bridge