MOLINE-- If you close your eyes you can hear it, even if you can't quite see it yet. It's The Q in downtown Moline that will help transport people on these tracks and give them something to do on the inside.
City leaders got a sneak peak of the latest progress in the building on Tuesday, March 28, 2017. But they needed to use a little imagination.
Floor one, picture this space filled with restaurants, kiosks and coffee stands.
And if you go upstairs, bring that imagination with you.
These wooden frames will be hotel rooms each with a kitchen, living space and bedroom. All 96 of them are made for extended stay visits.
"The construction of the new portion of the hotel is done modularly," says Moline's Director of Planning and Development Ray Forsythe.
And that type of construction isn't something you usually see in Quad City construction.
The wooden panels were actually built in a factory, delivered and installed right at the construction site. Forsythe says it's a faster more economical way to build.
"They're building a floor a week of this hotel. Half of the third floor was built in three days. So that's pretty amazing to see," says Forsythe.
Just how fast? The hotel and public space of the building is expected to be up and running by August 2017.
Construction leaders say the train portion of the project that will take passengers from Moline to Chicago will be ready for passengers by Spring of 2018. Right now construction crews are working on making the track sturdier. It needs to be reinforced to be able to handle the high speed passenger train.