Coralville garnered $27 million this week to renovate First Avenue, support flood-prevention efforts, and help decrease traffic congestion.

The funds are part of the state’s $800 million I-JOBS program, which Gov. Chet Culver created to finance infrastructure projects.

“We were amazed and very thankful we got the amount we asked for,” said Dan Holderness, the Coralville city engineer.

Coralville’s $36 million project will mainly focus on rebuilding First Avenue — soon to be co-named Hayden Fry Way — from South Sixth Street to Clear Creek, and it will include flood prevention along the Iowa River, Holderness said. The I-JOBS grant will cover 75 percent of the project’s cost.

The venture includes a plan to build three large pump stations — which protect storm sewers from high river levels and flash flooding — and new walls made of concrete and earth berm, or mounds of dirt, as extra safeguards, Holderness said.

“The main goal is flood mitigation,” he said. “We want to keep the water in the Iowa River.”

The renovation also aims to combat some of Coralville’s traffic problems by reducing congestion at Johnson County’s busiest intersection.

The city will add a fifth lane to First Avenue. Coralville Assistant City Administrator Ellen Habel said the extra lane will ease traffic at the corner of Highway 6 and First Avenue.

“It has been the interest of ours to widen it for a long time,” Habel said.

The project will also replace the traffic bridge over Clear Creek, making it wider, higher, and longer than the current structure, Holderness said.

Motorists won’t be the only ones to benefit from Coralville’s latest projects, officials said. They plan to build a new tunnel for pedestrians and bicyclists next to the Clear Creek Bridge, further improving congestion and safety issues with the city’s trail system, Habel said.

The goal is to finish the massive renovation by early 2011, Holderness said, but officials won’t have exact numbers until they speak with consultants later this week.

The street will stay open during the project, but lanes may be reduced from four to two, he said.