Project of the Week: Nassau Street SE

Work on Nassau Street SE is going well. So well, in fact, that the project is actually wrapping up early.

That is quite the success story, considering the unusual challenges that the project presented.

Located within sight of Brucemore between Blake Boulevard SE and Linden Drive SE, Nassau Street hosts a number of the City's historic homes. However, residents along Nassau have wanted an upgrade to the road for several years:

• Not only was the surface badly degraded, the road was so old that it lacked a system to take care of rainwater runoff.
• The street did not have a full sidewalk, causing pedestrians to walk in the roadway.
• There was a need for ADA ramps at the intersections.

There was another challenge, too. While new sidewalks were needed on Nassau Street SE, large trees presented an issue with installing them - and removing the trees was not an option.

"With the devastation to the City's tree canopy, which was caused by the 2020 derecho, our commitment to protecting our remaining trees has really been prioritized," says project manager Rebecca Lesnik. "We knew we needed to save these trees, and we took steps to ensure that this project did that."

First, workers minimized disturbances to the trees' root system by staying out of the dripline, which is the area of ground beneath the branches. With the trunks of the trees right on the edge of the existing roadway, the proposed sidewalk would normally been a death sentence for them. However, City engineers were able to come up with an unusual solution to the problem.

"Since these trees were adapted to having the weight of a roadway on top of the roots, we decided to place the sidewalk where the road had been, and realign the roadway so the sidewalk would be at the back of the new curb," Lesnik says. "We have given those trees the best chance possible, by causing as little disturbance as possible."

Residents also received new driveway aprons, since the edge of the new pavement was different from the existing driveway elevations.

"Something unique to some projects in the older parts of town is that the majority of the residences have alley garages," Lesnik says. "If they don't need to accommodate driveway access, the contractor can work faster, and finish the work much quicker than planned. This was one more factor in the shorter construction time for Nassau Street."

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 local 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

"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 Nassau Street SE project here. Learn more about Paving for Progress here.