As segments of the Principal Riverwalk project begin to take shape, members of the Greater Des Moines Partnership were able to display construction photos rather than artist renderings during their recent annual lobbying trip to Washington, D.C.

The progress was part of the reason the Partnership asked Iowa’s congressional delegation for $18 million for the Riverwalk project for fiscal year 2007, twice the amount it had requested last year for the current fiscal year.

“Part of it’s the phasing,” said Libby Jacobs, community relations director for Principal Financial Group Inc. “We’re into the heavy part of construction, and you can’t continue [federal] money over year to year. You couldn’t ask for too much in the beginning because you couldn’t use all of it in one fiscal year.”

This year’s request for the Riverwalk is the largest non-highway funding recommendation the Partnership has made and second only to the $19 million it’s seeking to complete the reconstruction of Interstate 235.

The Riverwalk is one of several quality-of-life projects the Partnership has been seeking to fund for the past three years, following a Project Destiny task force recommendation that Des Moines enhance its cultural and recreational amenities as an economic development strategy. Since these projects became priorities in 2003, they have collectively received nearly $32 million in federal funding.

This year, in addition to the Riverwalk, the Partnership is supporting seven quality-of-life projects that collectively are seeking $23.75 million in funding.

Just over half of that amount, $12 million, has been requested by the World Food Prize Foundation for the restoration of the historic Des Moines Public Library building to serve as its new headquarters. The foundation requested $14 million last year, but received just $350,000 in funding after getting $1 million in 2004.

Blank Park Zoo, which last year requested $2.4 million but received no funding, came back with a $1.3 million request. Zoo officials are seeking $1 million to create educational programs through a Visiting Celebrity Animals project that would enable the zoo to host traveling exhibits of rare species such as white tigers, and interactive exhibits such as free-flight bird shows. It’s also seeking $300,000 to renovate a historic Fort Des Moines building into an education center.

Dory Briles, the zoo’s vice president for development, said it was unusual that no projects were earmarked last year in the labor, health and human services bill, but that she’s hopeful the House will back some earmarked projects this year.

“And funding aside, (the trip) is a great opportunity to educate our legislators about what’s happening out here in the field,” she said.

The Partnership is also seeking more funding for recreational trails, which last year collectively received nearly $10 million from the federal government.

This year, the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization’s slate of high-priority funding requests for multi-use trails projects includes $3.5 million for the Four Mile Creek Trail, which would connect Des Moines to Ankeny and the Neal Smith Trail near Saylorville Lake. Additionally, the MPO is seeking $2 million for trail signage, $1.2 million for the Neal Smith Trail and $640,000 for the Trestle-to-Trestle Trail, which would connect Johnston’s trail system to Des Moines’.

For the Riverwalk, the project’s total price tag has risen by at least $5 million within the past few months due to added features as well as higher concrete and steel costs, Jacobs said. The total project cost is now estimated at between $60 million and $63 million. To date, $46 million has been raised for the project, $26 million of which came from non-government sources, she said.

The Partnership’s lobbying efforts have helped the project to obtain between $8 million and $9 million in federal funding for the project so far, Jacobs said, with the bulk of that, $5.1 million, coming from the 2006 highway reauthorization bill.

If approved, the additional $18 million in federal funding would be enough to cover construction of the street-level promenade and the multi-purpose trail along the east and west banks of the Des Moines River downtown, Jacobs said.

It’s possible that completion of the project, scheduled for 2008, could be delayed if the federal funding is not received, she said.

“The sewer project [which must be completed prior to the Riverwalk trail construction] gets done sometime in 2007,” she said. “It would be awkward if the sewer project was done and you just had dirt from the completed sewer project. That’s why there’s this sense of urgency.”