John Deere Road overpass gets new life

It’s been a boondoggle since birth.

When John Deere Road in Moline was widened in the late 1980s, the state put up $1 million for an overpass to safely deliver kids to the school on one side.

Even though the school closed before the overpass was built, the state went ahead with it. And it’s been an ugly thorn in our side ever since.

In 1993, a couple of kids dropped a bowling ball from the overpass, striking a vehicle below. Amazingly, no one was hurt. Before long, the secluded enclosure became a popular hideout for the pot and booze set, and graffiti was as commonplace as busted beer bottles.

Five years later, citing its uselessness and danger, the city council voted to close it. The city even placed cinder blocks in the openings on either side to keep out the riff-raff.

A year later, in 1999, the council again took up the matter of the overpass. Some people who lived near it told aldermen they’d sure like to be able to cross John Deere Road on foot without having to hoof it the two-blocks-or-so to the light at 7th Street.

It was again placed on the council agenda.

In a 6-to-2 vote, the overpass again was declared dangerous, seldom used and too expensive to maintain. It has been locked up tight ever since.

Here we are, a dozen years later, and a new crop of city officials say they’ve found a couple of reasons to reopen the overpass: give bicycles safe passage across six lanes of traffic and get rid of an eyesore that’s impossible to miss on one of the most-traveled roads in town.

For $90,990, the dark Plexiglas, broken in too many places to count, will be removed. New fencing will be placed on the sides and top, making it impossible to hurl anything of size onto the roadway below.

Ideally, the long-darkened passageway will have a new life as a bicycle bridge, connecting cyclists to bike trails throughout the city. The trails are only on paper, so far, but Mayor Don Welvaert said the city made strides earlier this year by adopting a trails program.

“The overpass was identified as one of two safe crossings of John Deere Expressway as part of that network,” he said.

The bridge was built to accommodate wheelchairs, so bicyclists can use the ramp, rather than having to carry their bikes up two-plus flights of steps. And getting rid of that ugly, broken Plexiglas will do wonders for the area’s looks.

For more than two decades, the overpass has been a frustrating reminder of wasted taxpayer money. Congratulations to Moline for what looks like a smart way to reverse that.