For Iowa City, Dubuque Street is an important corridor, providing an artery for roughly 25,000 vehicles to travel each day between the city and Interstate 80, which runs along the northern edge of town.

But historically the road has been prone to flooding from the nearby Iowa River, which snakes alongside it to the west, as well as flash floods caused by heavy rains. In 1993, floodwaters swamped the street for 54 days. Flooding in 2008 caused a month-long closure.

In recent years, however, Iowa City, home to about 75,700 residentsand the University of Iowa, has undertaken a project to raise the roadway by 10 feet, as well as replacing and elevating the Park Road Bridge, which intersects with it and crosses the river.

The project is one of those highlighted in a report out this week from the National Institute of Building Sciences about the potential cost savings from investments in pre-disaster hazard mitigation projects.

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