A Comprehensive(?) Listing of the 900s - Page 1

The NON-900s

What is a 900-series highway in Iowa?

"Secret routes" have been around for a while. The Iowa DOT appears to have begun codifying them in the mid-1970s, when an increase in construction and upgrades to routes left more segments of highways behind. It wasn't until the early 1990s that the started to let the secret out, so to speak, and the state began signing them. Highway 965 was marked on the 1988 map; 927 and 982 followed. Jason Hancock explained it this way in 2002: "Iowa apparently uses this series of numbers for decommissioned routes that they want to turn over to the appropriate county or city, but haven't been able to do so yet. They may be short and isolated stubs of a few hundred feet, or longer routes that follow the new route of a US or state highway. Most of these routes are marked as "unmarked primary" roads on the state highway map but appear on county maps, the Iowa Primary Road Sufficiency Log, the Iowa Detour and Road Embargo Map, and other DOT publications as well as some commercial maps (most notably DeLorme's atlas). ... In recent years abandoned highway segments have been given numbers that are not in the 900s, such as IA 432, the former segment of IA 163 in Oskaloosa." Indeed, since 2000, all the roads have been given numbers NOT in that range.

Jason's page lists all 900-series roads longer than two miles at his site. This table picks up where Jason's left off. In addition to those, all 900-series roads found on PDF maps from the DOT's site in the early 2000s, and unsigned non-900s past and present, are listed below. Some only live a short time. Some were around for a very long time until the Legislature enabled the Second Great Decommissioning in 2003. These don't seem to be numbered by rhyme or reason, unless the missing numbers are roads we just don't know about; no 9xx lower than 912 was known until the Fairfield bypass opened. And there are a lot more than numbers beginning with 9 in the "900s."

KEY
Number: Self-explanatory. Listings shaded in BLUE are active. All numbers below 400 were originally assigned to other routes.
Year(s): Start date for this number and end date if decommissioned; may not be exact. Only years are used; see Jason Hancock's site for exact dates if available. Those specifically involved in the Second Great Decommissioning of 2003 are shaded in gray; those not shaded with a 2003 date were turned over in separate agreements. Years are based on when a bypass segment opened, and then the last year the number appeared on the map (for example, 392 was on 2000 but not 2001, meaning decommissioning in 2000; 431 not on 2002 map, meaning gone in 2001). Year in parentheses, ex. (-1994), means part but not all of the route was decommissioned that year and part still exists/existed afterward.
Old/Co.: Its number when it was signed, _not_ the route the number was originally used for/county it's in, in the case of the non-9xxs.
Length: Self-explanatory. Most numbers are courtesy Jason Hancock's research into the "Primary Road Sufficiency Log". Some lengths of road segments created after 2002 are measured on Google Maps if possible.
Proof of life: Image(s) from at least one of the following: official state maps (if visible) and PDF state and/or county maps from DOT site. State clips are from the map dated 1/1/00 and are more pixelated; county clips are from maps dated 1/1/01 unless noted. Jason Hancock did some additional research in May 2002; more than a decade later, the Iowa DOT put online most if not all of its post-1969 (or so) official primary route descriptions. In those cases, maps without the numbers may be provided to show where the route was.
NOTE: Images are severely trimmed to show number and part or all of the route. Images are at a large size because otherwise sometimes you can't even see it. Download the county maps from the DOT's site for context.
Other notes: Self-explanatory. If you can help us fill out the holes and question marks please send me an e-mail.

Page last edited 7/17/16

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Longer than 2 miles Signed Active July 1, 2003

No.	Year(s)	Old/Co.	Length	Proof of life	Other notes
102	Became secret route May 1, 2003	Mahaska	0.5	2011 New Sharon	Not turned over inside New Sharon in 2003, apparently
107	June 4, 2003 (-2010) -2011	Cerro Gordo	2.5	2011 Thornton	Not turned over in 2003; Meservey, Thornton received their segments on two dates
116	Dec. 2, 1998	US 218 Bremer	2.62	2001 (big map below)	Bus. 218 S of IA 3; see big map below
162	2000 (-2001) -2006 (segment is now part of US 18)	US 218 Floyd	4.18	2001 (does NOT touch 218; big map below) 2002; notice that alongside 218 it is gray (turned over), but a gray portion north of 218 (T64) is now black. Swapped most of 162 for this part of T64 (also see big map below to show it was T64)	Bus. 218 S of US 18; see big map below
231	2000-2003	US 34 Henry	4	LEFT: 2002; BELOW: 2003
254	2003-2004	US 218 Floyd/ Chickasaw	2.6	Old US 218 in Nashua (after 1960ish)
263	2000-2003	US 20 Grundy (/Black Hawk)	12.3	2001
289	2000-2003	US 61 Muscatine	2.27	(north part; 2 parts; see below) Bypassed segment farther south was closer to river
296	2000 (-2001) (-2003) -2011	IA 28 Polk/ Warren	0.29	2010	SW 42nd St
303	2004	US 151 Jones	4.1	Old 151 through Monticello excluding IA 38 section	Noted on document from Wis. DOT
312	2002-2003	US 65 Polk/Jasper	?	2003 (both)	"Marsh Kink" at Jasper County line; part has since been removed
331	2002-2005	IA 5 Polk	3.8	2003 Des Moines inset 2003	Army Post Road in West Des Moines
334	2006-2007	US 34 Wapello	0.8+5.5	2003	2 parts: Roemer Avenue and through Agency
335	1999-2001	IA 163 Marion	1.1
337	2000-2001	US 218 Floyd	2.7	SEE BOTTOM	North segment of present Bus. 218
337	2003-2004	US 151 Jones	1	2004	First reused non-900 secret #
340	2005-2007	US 34 Jefferson	1.2	From creation of bypass through Batavia	First reused number from route killed in 2003
341	1988 or 1993-2003	IA 341 Palo Alto	0.06 (317 ft., ca. 105 yds.)	2003	Remnant of original 341 to Lost Island Lake State Park
342	2004-2005	US 63 Wapello/ Mahaska	Either 1 or 2.2	2003 DOT archives	Old 63 through Eddyville
356	2000-2003	US 71 Dickinson	0.94	2001 2002	Smudge on 2001 map
368	2002 (-2004)	IA 5 Warren	0.1	Segment at upper left of 2003 map still active, apparently 2011 aerial photo (NW-SE two-lane)	KCCI had shield indicator for this on map in 2010. Probably the silliest remaining segment. Or second- silliest, after we figure out what IA 903 is.
373	2002-2003	US 61/ IA 92 Muscatine	0.7	2015 (in yellow) Two segments between Muscatine/Louisa line and Business 61	Turned over May 1 and June 6, 2003
374	1999-2000	IA 163 Jasper	1.5		East dead-end stub serves PCM school
376	Nov. 19, 2001	US 75 Woodbury	9	2015	Former (now Business) US 75 through Sioux City; thanks to Kurt Berge for finding it
377	1980-2003	IA 377 Woodbury	0.21 (1108 ft., ca. 369 yds.)	2001 Sioux City	Part of original 377 in SC; rest turned over in 1980
390	2002-2003	US 218 Bremer	2.1	2003 (both)
392	1998-2000	IA 163 Jasper	3.5	2000
404	2004 -2005, 2006 (-2007)	IA 60/ US 75 Plymouth	Various 1.6 (2008)	2011	Assigned to each bypassed segment of IA 60 as four-lane was built, then turned over. Old US 75 segment north of Le Mars will stay
421	2000-2003	US 61 Muscatine, Scott	0.71	2001 2001 Also assigned to old 61 through Blue Grass	Right along old 61 NE of Muscatine; Jason Hancock says trailer park and Casey's on road
424	1999-2003	US 218 Henry	2.81	2001 (See big map below)	See big map below; old 218 N and S of IA 78
431	1998-2001	US 218 Bremer	1.89	See 116 map (segment outside of Waverly)	Bus. 218 N of IA 3; see big map below
431	2004 (-2005) -2011?	US 30 Marshall	1.6 (0.6)	2010	Apparently lasted longer in rural Marshall County
432	1997-2002	IA 163 Mahaska	1.9	2000	BGSs at S end stayed from when it was 163 until late 2003 or early 2004
434	2005 (-2007) -2008	US 34 Des Moines	6.7	2006	Part through Danville lasted one winter longer
437	2005-2009	IA 137 Wapello	0.3	Eddyville change; road now abandoned - SEE 342 MAP ABOVE	On city maps thru decade
438	2001 (-2004) (-2005)	US 218 Henry	? (2001) 0.5-ish (2011)	2003 2011	Only from eastbound US 34 ramps north to mainline US 218 (see the purple at bottom of 2011 map? That's old 218 but not 438)
450	2005	None (connector between IA 10 and IA 60) Sioux	0.3	2011 Alton	Named for 450th Street in Sioux County
460	2004-2007	IA 27 Lee	5.5	2006	Assigned to all bypassed segments of IA 394
461	2011	US 61 Scott	11	2011	Business US 61 from I-280 to I-80
463	2009-2011	US 63 Chickasaw	2.2	Northwest of Frederika, bypassed by four-lane diagonal
470	2011???	US 75 Plymouth	0.7	2016 Merrill	This was bypassed in 1958; no idea when it was added to state system; no evidence before 2010s
475	1969-1975	US 75 Woodbury/ Monona	31.8	1973 Rand McNally (prob. not signed in Iowa)	Renamed IA 970 in 1975; old 75 N of Onawa; see also 970
478	2002-2003	US 63 Chickasaw	0.7	Red line between pink and intersection at bottom (other two-lane red line is IA 24)	Segment in New Hampton
520	1968-1976	new road (to be 20) Hamilton	3	1973 Rand McNally (prob. not signed in Iowa)	Oldest freeway part; also 520 in Sioux City
534	Multiple	new road (to be 34) Henry (/Mills?)	N/A	SEE 438 map above. Was connection between 218 bypass and old 218 until freeway was completed. Number may have been applied to new segment in Mills County before rerouting.