Source: Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier
By: Mike Anderson
CEDAR FALLS | After years of preparation but only a few months of work on the ground, Prairie Parkway is open for traffic.
Mayor Jon Crews joined other city leaders at MidWestOne Bank on Prairie Parkway to celebrate the road’s official opening this morning. The road actually opened to traffic Thursday noon and an official ribbon cutting was scheduled for this morning.
Crews was one of the first drivers to take a spin down the road.
“Not much traffic,” he joked. “I didn’t see any accidents.”
A $2 million project, the newly constructed roadway will connect East Viking and Greenhill roads with side road connections to Brandilynn Boulevard, Wild Rye Way, Bluegrass Circle, Caraway Lane and Purple Clover Drive.
Prairie Parkway will serve as an alternate route to Iowa Highway 58 between Greenhill and Viking roads, the scene of numerous accidents in recent years as traffic boomed along with retail development in southern Cedar Falls.