CEDAR FALLS -- When Iowa Highway 58 was built in Cedar Falls as part of the Avenue of the Saints project, it included the only stoplights in Iowa on the entire route from St. Paul, Minn., to St. Louis.

The stretch of road -- and its three lights -- have marked the most deadly passage in Cedar Falls since it was created. City, state and federal governments, though, are taking steps to make the avenue safer.

Since Highway 58 opened in 1994, 10 accidents produced 13 fatalities. Of those, four fatalities stemmed from incidents in which one driver crossed the median and struck an oncoming vehicle. Another death was a pedestrian who was struck by a vehicle while attempting to cross the highway.

Authorities added a tension-cable barrier in the median in 2005. Since then, no fatal crossover accidents have been recorded.

The issue of making the road safer for pedestrians and cyclists is yet to be resolved, however.

Options

A citizen committee started meeting in February regarding recreational trail safety around Highway 58.

"We kind of expanded it out to look at the entire south end, from Cedar Heights Drive to Hudson Road," said David Sturch, a city planner for Cedar Falls working with the committee. "We thought they should look at the whole south end of Cedar Falls and how the existing trails link together and how future trails would serve the area."

The initial idea was to examine highway intersections with Greenhill Road, Viking Road and Ridgeway Avenue. Once the committee began meeting, more concerns were voiced about crossing Greenhill Road east of the Highway 58 intersection.

The committee, working with Iowa Department of Transportation officials, city staff members and EarthTech consultants, identified a number of possible options.

"We had our favorites, but whether they're going to be feasible is another issue. A bridge over 58 would be quite expensive," said Bob Morgan, an avid cyclist and committee member.

The committee has shown support for several options, with four garnering the most attention.

Moving from north to south, the first possibility would be a new crossing of Greenhill Road east of Highway 58. That crossing would meet the Cedar Prairie Trail that cuts northeast from Greenhill to Main Street. The crossing would likely be a bridge or, more likely, a tunnel.

Sturch said a temporary solution would be to add flashing caution lights around an at-grade crossing with a median strip used as a haven between eastbound and westbound traffic.

The second suggestion would be a bridge over Highway 58 about halfway between Greenhill and Viking roads. The crossing could connect trails on both sides of the river. The intention would be to serve people who want to cross the highway and could connect housing subdivisions, such as Viking Hills and Greenhill Village on the west with El Dorado Heights, Pinnacle Prairie and the Western Home Communities to the east.

The third concept would be a tunnel under Viking Road on the east side of Highway 58.

And the fourth idea would be rerouting the existing trail along Highway 58 where it crosses Ridgeway Avenue. Steering the route east would eliminate some of the hazards of a north-south crossing at the intersection. That crossing, though, would be at grade.

While the committee has looked at a number of possibilities and come to some consensus on popular properties, the group hasn't ruled out a number of other possibilities.

One would be moving the north-south through route in that area to well east of Highway 58. However, many riders would probably choose to still ride the trail nearest the highway as a matter of convenience.

Trail upgrades all depend on the ability to finance construction. The city has two separate federal grants that total $3 million. Part of that money has been spent on EarthTech's study, however.

"You could start doing bridges and tunnels and bust your budget in a hurry," Sturch said.

The federal money would require a 20 percent local match, as well.

EarthTech has put more work into studying possible solutions identified by the committee. The next step will be a meeting of city staff members before going back to the citizen committee.

Success

The Brifen barrier is a cable device that flexes when hit but is strong enough to keep a vehicle from passing into oncoming lanes of traffic.

"We haven't had a vehicle get over, under or through a barrier yet," said Dave Little, assistant district engineer for the DOT.

Since the barrier was installed, the DOT has repaired it 27 times after collisions.

"I'm so tickled that it's there and it's done its job," Councilman Tom Hagarty said.

He pushed the DOT to install a barrier after Grant Wheeler and Kyle Zey were killed in 2002 and 2004, respectively. Those incidents involved drivers crossing the median and striking the victims' vehicles.

The DOT recommended the Brifen barrier over initial objections of council members and some community members, who wanted a concrete wall. Little and others from the DOT explained the Brifen barrier provides protection not only to drivers in oncoming lanes, but also to motorists who collide with the median structure.

"That was an important aspect of it," Little said. "Several of these crashes we don't know much about because they had driven away. From our perspective that's a good thing."

The DOT first used the Brifen barriers on a stretch of Interstate 35 near Ankeny. State officials were pleased with the results and have been looking for more appropriate applications around the state.

Russ Frisch is resident maintenance engineer with the Waterloo office of the DOT. He said a collision with the barrier usually means repairing six to eight posts, a job that takes up to 1 1/2 hours. A larger collision could mean as many as 14 posts may need to be replaced.

"Usually the post will bend over. Occasionally a car will get caught in the cable," Frisch said.

Vehicles typically escape, however.

"The most damage they usually sustain is if someone hits them," Frisch said. "Usually it's just a little scratched paint."

Contact Jon Ericson at (319) 291-1461 or jonathan.ericson@wcfcourier.com.