The City of Waterloo is proud to announce the launch of a colorful new attraction coming to downtown. The Cedar River Lighting Experience will create colorful beams of light on the cascading waters of the Cedar River between Park Avenue and the 4th Street Bridges. A tunnel of colored lights will guide visitors through the 4th Street pedestrian bridge canopy and enhance visibility and beauty of the icon Waterloo structure. Artful lighting towers will also be positioned along the river to enhance the experience and draw visitors to downtown district.
River lights will be programmable for holidays, events, and community celebrations and can coordinate with lighting at the Riverloop Expo Plaza and Amphitheatre, Waterloo Convention Center, and other lighting features in the downtown district. The spectacle becomes an economic development spark, a source of community pride, a tool for visitor attraction, and a destination for recreation, art, and entertainment.
The Cedar River Light Experience is part of the Veterans Way Art & History Walk project along the 4th Street corridor, an economic development and visitor attraction project which connects multiple existing historic and commemorative Veterans sites along the corridor. Veterans Way existing venues include Vietnam Memorial Monument, Veterans Memorial Hall at Soldiers/Sailors Park, Prairie Pathways Plaza, Sullivan Brothers Park, and Sullivan Brothers Iowa
Veterans Museum. In addition to the river lighting, new enhancements include the new Unity Plaza pocket park on Commercial Street, special streetscaping featuring banners commemorating local Veterans to be installed as well as decorative lighting under Highway 218 to serve as a gateway and enhance connectivity. Improvements to the Waterloo Convention Center are also included with a stately Sullivan Brothers Family Memorial on the plaza of the Waterloo Convention Center as the center piece of the Veterans Way.
The Cedar River Lighting Project is made possible by the generosity of major donors MidAmerican Energy, Black Hawk Gaming Association and Waterloo Industrial Development Corporation whose board members also serve as project leads.
To accommodate construction, the 4th Street pedestrian bridge will be closed from June 14 through mid-September with intermittent breaks between construction phases.
Pedestrians are asked to follow the detour route to the 5th Street bridge by passing through the Veterans Parks on either side of the river. Drivers traveling over the 5th Street bridges are asked to drive with extra caution and be mindful of increased pedestrian and bicycle traffic on the bridge.
A pedestrian map of the detour can be found on the City of Waterloo’s website as well as more information about each of the Veterans Way projects at www.CityofWaterlooIowa.com/VeteransWay.
The Cedar River Lighting Experience is targeted for completion early in October 2022. A lighting ceremony and celebration will be held at that time.
For more information about the Veterans Way project, contact City Communications Director, Wendy Bowman by calling 319-291-4301 or by email to Wendy.Bowman@Waterloo-IA.org.
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