City of Des Moines Fleur Drive Reconstruction

Background

Fleur Drive is a principal arterial in Des Moines and the primary means of access from the central business district to the airport. In order to improve pavement conditions and enhance pedestrian mobility, the city sought to reconstruct Fleur between Watrous Avenue and McKinley Avenue. Foth was tasked with designing a complete reconstruction with a four-lane cross section that included left turn lanes at key intersections and access points.

Approach

The high concentration of businesses along Fleur Drive and the heavy traffic volumes made traffic circulation and construction staging of utmost importance. We coordinated extensively with business owners to develop a plan for maintaining access throughout construction, particularly for properties whose only direct access was via Fleur Drive.

Roadway elements include completing the sidewalk network on both sides of the road while minimizing impacts to properties. The existing drainage network was analyzed for deficiencies and improvements were made to bring the system up to current design standards. The project also involved public and private utility coordination with many of the same providers with facilities along the Douglas Avenue corridor.