Des Moines' MLK Jr. Parkway to reopen early as Ninth Street lanes close for improvements

West Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway's westbound lanes are expected to fully open late Wednesday, six months ahead of schedule, Des Moines city spokesperson Youssef Ghazali tells Axios.

Flashback: The lanes closed in spring 2022 as part of an ongoing $29 million sewer project.

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• The road segment — between East Fourth and Southwest 16th streets — was expected to be completed at the end of this year.

Two of the four lanes along the 600 block of 9th Street in downtown Des Moines are permitted to be closed until October. Photo: Jason Clayworth/Axios

Meanwhile , two of the four lanes along the 600 block of Ninth Street in downtown were recently closed for a curb bump-out project.

State of play: The lanes, which funnel vehicles from Keosauqua Way and the freeway into downtown, could remain fenced off until October.

Zoom in: The bump-out is intended to protect pedestrians from crashes and is an extension of other curb protection projects, city spokesperson Devin Perry tells Axios.

The intrigue: The closures coincidently began around the time of a waterline break at the adjacent Lumen Technologies building, but the projects are not connected, Perry notes.

• CenturyLink's outages , which were caused by the break and disrupted emergency communications across the state a few weeks ago, have been resolved, Lumen spokesperson Mark Molzen tells Axios.
• State officials are reaching out to the Federal Communication Commission to ensure required 911 redundancies are in place for future outages, KCCI reports .