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From YouTube: University Avenue Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
Description
The City of Waterloo hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony on Wednesday, October 20th, 2021 for University Avenue. Comments were made by Mayor Hart, City Engineer Jamie Knutson, and Michelle Sweeney of AECOM.
A
Well,
good
morning,
everyone
and
thank
you
so
much
for
being
here
today.
This
is
such
an
incredible
opportunity
for
our
community.
The
university
avenue
is
the
longest
city
road
project
that
we've
had
in
over
the
last
50
years,
being
over
a
little
bit
over
three
miles
and
we're
very
fortunate
to
have
the
iowa
d.o.t.
A
That
was
an
incredible
partner
in
this
opportunity.
It's
a
30.,
38.3
million
dollar
project
and
what's
interesting,
I
see
eric
eric
thorson
over
there
as
well
and
jamie.
What's
interesting,
this
project
when
I
first
was
got
into
elected
everyone,
kept
saying
what's
up
with
university
avenue
what's
going
on,
and
so
I
got
with
eric
very
early
on
and
we
wrote
a
letter
to
the
iowa
dlt
asking
what's
up
with
university
avenue
as
well,
because
it
was
a
state
highway.
A
We
ended
up
selling
at
28
million
dollars
for
this
project
and
then
we're
so
very
thankful
for
gaming.
That
also
came
along
on
this
project,
because
when
we
take
a
look
at
road
projects,
this
is
one
of
the
best
ways
to
be
able
to
connect.
The
city
of
cedar
falls
in
the
city
of
waterloo,
and
we
know
their
project
is
exceptional
as
well.
A
A
This
road
is
accessible
for
citizens
to
be
able
to
walk
and
to
be
able
to
bike.
This
has
trails.
This
has
all
the
amenities
and
it
also
has
a
lighted
lighted
bridge
that
will
showcase
the
best
of
who
we
are
as
a
community,
but
I
would
like
to
call
up
michelle
sweeney
with
aecom,
who
was
the
project
lead
to
give
some
highlights
and
some
overviews.
So
please
give
a
round
of
applause
for
michelle.
B
Thank
you
so
much.
This
project
has
been
a
great
project
to
have
worked
on.
I
do
really
want
to
thank
the
city
of
waterloo
for
interesting
aecom
with
this
major
project.
It's
been
under
design
since
about
2016
is
when
they
brought
a
comb
on
board
and
we
let
the
first
project
in
2018,
and
that
was
a
two-year
project,
then
phase,
and
that
was
from
green
hill
to
ainsburg.
That
was
the
first
section
that
was
complete.
We
had
phase
two
shortly
after
that
in
2019,
and
that
was
from
the
city.
B
So
there's
a
number
of
enhancements
and
things
like
that
that
you're
going
to
start
seeing
that
have
been
started,
just
not
quite
yet
done,
but
the
majority
of
the
project
is
going
to
be
substantially
complete
this
year.
So
with
that,
I
think
you
already
kind
of
hit
the
highlights
on
the
bridges,
but
we
did
have
a
few
fun
facts
that
I
had
the
project
included
about
13
miles,
which
is
about
a
half
marathon
of
storm
water
and
sanitary
sewer.
The
amount
of
pcc
paving
that
you
have
here
is
about
25
football
fields.
B
So
that's
quite
a
bit.
We
have
eight
traffic
signals.
One
roundabout
like
behind
us
22
bus
stops.
So
that's
been
a
huge
improvement
to
this
corridor.
Is
the
accommodations
that
you're
going
to
see
for
not
only
pedestrians
bicyclists,
but
also
for
the
transit
user
along
this
corridor,
and
then
another
fun
fact
is
right
behind
us.
We
have
this
lovely
roundabout
and
monday
morning.
There
wasn't
a
single
planting
in
it,
and
now
they
have
over
1
300
plantings
in
that
roundabout.
B
In
about
two
days
they
knocked
that
out,
and
there
was
no
mulch,
no
rock,
no
nothing,
so
they
the
there
has
been
a
lot
of
people
working
on
this
project
to
make
it
what
it
is
today.
So
the
another
thing
that
I
wanted
to
kind
of
touch
on
is
that
the
phase
one
project
has
already
won
an
award.
It
won
the
2020
concrete,
paving
association
for
an
urban
collector
street.
So
this
this
project
is
a
great
project
and
I'm
sure
that
it'll
have
other
acknowledgments
in
the
future.
B
So
this
is
a
great
great
project
and
I
really
want
to
thank
everybody
involved.
There
have
been
so
many
individuals,
businesses,
city
staff,
aecom
staff
that
I've
called
up
and
had
to
call
in
lots
of
favors
randomly
for
lots
of
different
things.
So
I
really
do
want
to
thank
everybody.
That's
been
involved
with
this
project
and
I
know
jamie's
going
to
have
a
number
of
people,
but
he
has
been
great
to
work
with,
and
so
is
eric
thorson
with
this
project
when
it
started
so
yeah,
I
think
that's
it.
So
I
think.
A
B
C
Wow,
I
don't.
I
don't
know
that
there
was
ever
that
much
hair
up
there
mayor,
but
I
appreciate
the
thought
I
just
want
to
take
a
minute
and
thank
everybody
and
I'm
going
to
run
through
a
list
here,
but
this
has
truly
been
an
incredible
transformation
from
one
to
the
other
one
into
the
other
of
this
project
and
it
it
it's
amazing.
C
These
are
the
folks
that
are
out
here
every
day
dealing
with
everything
that
you
see
going
on:
kyle
durant
and
kevin
blanchen
with
intercog
felicia
cass
with
complete
streets,
our
planning
staff,
nola
anderson
and
eric
schrader,
sarah
kempen
from
my
office.
She
was
doing
all
the
storm
water
work,
paul
hudding,
james
bulger,
todd
deerfield
from
leisure
services,
who
gets
to
maintain
all
of
this
lovely
enhancements
that
you
get
to
see.
C
Randy
bennett
from
public
works,
michelle
wiedener,
our
chief
financial
officer,
who
we
without
her
wouldn't
have
been
able
to
fund
a
lot
of
this
particular
project.
Brian
bowman
and
forrest
graves
with
waste
management.
Agnes
kress,
with
cable
tv.
If
you've
been
on
our
website,
you've
seen
some
of
the
drone
videos
that
agnes
has
run
over
the
years,
and
you
can
see
how
construction
has
gone
through
there
there's
been
a
number
of
utilities,
the
waterworks,
centurylink
and
mid-american.
C
C
C
These
folks
are
the
ones
that
took
everything
that
was
on
these
pieces
of
paper
that
aecom
created
and
actually
built
what
you
see
today
and
I
do
want
to
thank
all
the
businesses
along
this
corridor.
I
know
this
has
been
a
long,
dusty,
noisy
process
and
it
hasn't
always
been
easy
and
it
hasn't
been
quick
and
it's
been
tough
on
you.
I
know
that,
but
the
end
is
in
sight
we're
almost
there.
C
A
A
The
city
has
already
approved
development
agreements
along
university
avenue.
We
are
looking
right
now
at
with
our
agreement
with
bin
stro,
for
the
redevelopment
of
this
intersection
with
a
million
and
a
half
dollars,
plus
investment
into
new
commercial
buildings
with
papa
john's
family
dollar
and
additional
tenant
space.