Will Davenport Make 3rd & 4th Streets Two-Way?

It's not a new conversation but it's an ongoing one, especially as Davenport has already received $10 million in federal funding to reconstruct the area between Telegraph and Harrison.

On Tuesday, the Downtown Davenport Partnership will discuss converting 3rd and 4th Streets to two-way roads. The plan would be not to only make the roads two-way at the same time but also build a 4th Street detour.

Davenport will have the means to reconstruct the roads between Telegraph and Harrison, thanks to federal funding. Obviously, the project of making the two downtown roads two-way will demand a lot of time, money, and will also be confusing for drivers.

"Plus, the Downtown Partnership, which is made up of the downtown property owners and businesses have agreed to pay for almost 35-40% of the conversion costs over 10 years to help the city pay for that bond, which is between $600,000-700,000, which is real money," Downtown Davenport Partnership Executive Director Kyle Carter told WQAD. "There is no other neighborhood in the city that would ever be built from the ground up with one-way pairs running through it that are four lanes wide and move as quickly as these do."

The conversation of making the roads two-way has been going on since the 80's so it's nothing new.

"We know that this has been a hot topic for a long time, but ultimately, there are stacks of studies that agree that this is a good idea," Carter told WQAD. " We're also aware that there has to be a balance between walkability and growth of downtown and our adjacent neighborhoods and traffic efficiency."

The downtown Davenport roads have raised some safety concerns since the area has added 2,000 residents but the infrastructure hasn't expanded to reflect it.