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Bacon Creek Conduit: Sustainability for a Safer Tomorrow
FY2026 Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) Grant Program
Project Description
The City of Sioux City (City) is requesting $25,000,000 in Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant funding to complete the Bacon Creek Conduit: Sustainability for a Safer Tomorrow project. This project includes two components; the Bacon Creek Conduit (BCC) and the Gordon Drive Viaduct (Viaduct). The Gordon Drive corridor is a critical local and regional route linking downtown Sioux City to neighborhoods east of U.S. Highway 75/Lewis Boulevard. This project includes relocating and reconstructing the BCC and the Viaduct, two structures in poor condition and at risk of failure. The 2025 Iowa Department of Transportation (Iowa DOT) inspection report stated the BCC has only 2 years of service life remaining, and the Iowa DOT Bridge Maintenance and Inspection Engineer estimates the Viaduct will close in 2039 if it is not reconstructed. With high traffic volumes on Gordon Drive and the Viaduct, 24,000 average annual daily traffic (AADT) with 2% truck traffic, replacing both structures is critical to preventing a potential structural collapse that could endanger the community. This project alleviates the risk of structural failures along Gordon Drive and adds multimodal features that better protect motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists. The BCC is essential to roadway stability; without reconstruction, the ground beneath Gordon Drive could fail, causing the roadway to collapse.
The BCC is a city-owned asset, and the Viaduct is an Iowa DOT-owned asset. Recognizing the safety risks associated with these structures and the interconnectedness of the assets, the City and Iowa DOT entered a formal partnership to address the Gordon Drive and BCC elements cooperatively as a single project, with goals to maximize efficiencies, minimize negative impacts on the public, and complete the project in a timely manner. This partnership facilitates the completion of both components concurrently is the only practical approach to ensure the following:
• Maintain safety along Gordon Drive
• Prevent structural failures that would be catastrophic to the traveling public
• Avoid repeated disturbances to the corridor, rail lines, and surrounding land uses
• Reduce overall construction duration
• Maximize cost efficiency
• Limit impacts on regional traffic and nearby businesses
Although the conduit relocation and Viaduct reconstruction have separate ownership, they function as a single construction effort because the structures are physically interconnected, both are in poor condition with dual risk of structural failure. Completing them together provides significant construction efficiencies and ensures these dependent, at-risk structures are repaired as quickly as possible.
The coordinated project realigns and reconstructs the 90-year-old, 3,940-foot Viaduct, which spans BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) lines, industrial parcels, and the Bacon Creek channel, and relocates the 117-year-old BCC from beneath Gordon Drive at the east end of the project area. It also includes improved pedestrian and bicycle facilities, a shared-use path, and pedestrian tunnels. Gordon Drive is a critical east-west connector carrying 24,500 vehicles per day. City engineers and Iowa DOT concluded that relocating and replacing both structures is the only viable way to address inadequate capacity and avoid the imminent risk of failure that threatens this critical corridor. Iowa DOT has established a project website that details project design and components, schedule, public engagement, and details on the history and development of this vital project.
APPENDIX A: STRUCTURAL CONDITION ASSESSMENTS
APPENDIX B: BACON CREEK CONDUIT REPLACEMENT FEASIBILITY REPORT
APPENDIX C: HAZARD MITIGATION PLAN SUMMRY
APPENDIX D: SUPPLEMENTAL TRAFFIC & SAFETY ANALYSIS
APPENDIX F: NEPA FINDING OF NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACT