IOWA CITY — Complicating vehicle and foot traffic in and around the main University of Iowa Health Care campus and its neighboring Kinnick Stadium — beginning this summer and stretching into and through the upcoming Hawkeye football season — is construction of a new road and roundabout that clears the way for the massive new UIHC inpatient tower.

The $17.5 million project — expected to be finished by December — will add 1,500 linear feet of new roadway and a roundabout connecting Newton Road with the UIHC fountain entrance.

Routed between the UIHC General Hospital and the current Hospital Parking Ramp 1, it will serve as a utility hub sitting north of the UI Center for Disabilities and Development and west of its Hardin Library for Health Sciences.

“The new road is one of several projects that need to be completed before construction on the new inpatient tower can begin,” according to the UI Office of Strategic Communication.

Because both Hospital Parking Ramp 1 and the Wendell Johnson Speech and Hearing Center must be razed to make way for the new 842,000-square-foot inpatient tower — projected to cost more than $1 billion — the new road must be built first “to ensure efficient access to UI Health Care university campus.”

Given the import of the area — characterized as a “critical transportation hub” experiencing more than 500 bus stops daily from multiple transit systems — the university is undertaking its road project in phases and using alternate routes.

“The new utility corridor along the new roadway would support relocated and expanded sanitary sewer, storm sewer, water mains and chilled water distribution systems,” according to a project and budget proposal the Board of Regents approved in November. “A new information technology duct bank would also be built.”

Phases

Phase one of the project — already completed — involved grading of the area and barrier installation.

Phase two — which started in mid-June and is expected to extend into mid-September — includes replacing underground water and sewer lines, requiring alternating traffic along Newton Road.

Sidewalks along Newton also will close, routing pedestrian access around the construction zone. Although the Dental Science Building’s loading dock will stay open, bus stops at both the Hardin Library and the Veterans Affairs hospital will be closed.

In addition to patients, visitors and employees at the hospital, these changes could affect football fans once the Hawkeye season begins with a home opener against Illinois State University on Aug. 31. The Hawkeyes also are hosting Iowa State University for the annual Cy-Hawk Series on Sept. 7 in Iowa City.

Over the course of the Hawkeye football season, the university is scheduled to host seven home games, with the last one against the University of Nebraska on Nov. 29.

Phase three will install temporary bus stops next to the Dental Science Building and the Medical Education Research facility — given the current VA Loop bus stop will be eastbound service only. This is expected to occur between the end of July and late August.

Phase four, from mid-August to early December, will involve more utility work, grading, paving and installing the improved bus stop. During this phase, the current VA Loop bus stop will close to all routes.

Once complete, according to UI Communications, “the new bus loop will accommodate up to five buses at a time and allow riders to easily identify which direction a bus is traveling.”

“Eventually, the road will serve as an additional exit for Hospital Parking Ramp 2. The project also will allow the university to consider improvements for bicycling and walking paths in the area.”