After more than five months of detours and inconvenience to businesses and motorists in Atlantic, the Highway 6/7th Street reconstruction project is finished and the road is once again open to traffic. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held this (Tuesday) afternoon at 7th and Olive Streets in Atlantic, before traffic was allowed to make its way through the corridor that’s been blocked off and torn-up from the intersection of 7th and Olive east, to just past Burger King, since May 26th.

Atlantic Mayor Dave Jones conducted the ceremonial ribbon cutting.

Atlantic Mayor Dave Jones cuts the ribbon to open 7th Street/Hwy 6.

Iowa Department of Transportation District 4 Coordinator Scott Suhr, based in Atlantic, said “It’s been a long year, and obviously the rain hasn’t helped us out much.” He said also, there are some touch-up projects left to complete, such as pavement markings on the east end of 7th Street, and he says they have to work with the City of Atlantic to coordinate the traffic signals and get them timed-out for smooth traffic flow.

But in the end, Suhr says motorists and pedestrians alike will benefit from all the improvements that were long overdue. There’s pavement, new, ADA compliant sidewalks and driveways. There’s 10 inches of concrete on the road, 12-inches of rock sub-base underneath that, a sub-drain underneath the sub-base to help remove water from under the concrete slab to prevent problems with cracking and pot holes. There are also new storm water intakes, and new video traffic signal detection systems at the intersection of Plum and Olive Streets.

Officials had hoped the project, which was paid for through State and Federal funding, would be completed before school started in late August, but heavy periods of rain and other, unanticipated issues kept pushing the completion date further and further behind.