Biking improvements planned downtown Des Moines

Source: <a id="MainContent_MainColumnContentPlaceHolder_hlSource" href="http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2015/07/29/half-million-dollars-bike-infrastructure-headed-downtown-des-moines/30818685/?hootPostID=8bcc32" target="_blank">Des Moines Register
Author: <a id="MainContent_MainColumnContentPlaceHolder_hlAuthorBottom" href="mailto:tmeinch@dmreg.com">Timothy Meinch
Posted By: <a id="MainContent_MainColumnContentPlaceHolder_hlPostedBy" href="/Profile/bikeiowa">bikeiowa

Timothy Meinch
Wed July 29 2015
Posted Jul 29, 2015
7,024

Downtown streets will receive half-a-million dollars in new bike infrastructure next year.

Des Moines obtained $400,000 in Iowa Department of Transportation funding — dispersed through the Iowa Clean Air Attainment Program — that will help fund $530,000 in new bicycle features, ranging from bike lanes and signals to trail connections.

The projects mark the second phase of a downtown bicycle improvement plan approved in 2011.

Projects for cyclists include:

Trail connections along Second Avenue from Center Street to Crocker Street and at Fleur Drive and Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway intersection.
Traffic signal improvements at Second Avenue and Crocker Street and Southwest Fifth Street and MLK Jr. Parkway.
Bike lanes or “sharrow” pavement markings installed along High Street, Tenth Street and Southwest Fifth Street.

City officials say the planned improvements will help cyclists access downtown destinations, employment centers, a new downtown transit hub and retail outlets.

The construction work is expected to begin next year, with completion in 2017.