Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

Waiting for a train on US 75 in Merrill is an experience one wants to have as little as possible. I endured it once last year. Now it’s going to be fixed.

The Iowa DOT has settled on a design that will relocate US 75 slightly to the east, with a bridge over new, slightly straightened railroad tracks. The second public meeting in four months on the subject will be held Aug. 7 in Merrill. While that may sound fast, in the overall six-step process, this is only the latter portion of Step 2. There hasn’t even been an environmental impact study yet.

This project is not in the five-year plan; reconstruction of 75 through Hinton is, in 2029. That means that without a big change in priorities or a big grant, the earliest construction could begin is late 2031 (fiscal 2032). Once the bridge is open, the railroad tracks can be relocated.

The concept mentions “reduced-conflict intersection” for this location. That’s not really true. What it really is, is a partial interchange at US 75 and old 75 (northbound exit, southbound entrance), with a turnaround for the other two traffic movements just to the south. Right now the south end is a Y intersection.

Also, in a surprise found a while back, the official city map of Merrill shows that old 75, 3rd and Main streets, is secret IA 470. We don’t know when or why this designation occurred.

Good news: US 20 will not be getting a roundabout in Holstein!

Bad news: Both intersections with US 59 are going to become J-turns!

The story from KTIV says that this was selected over the roundabout due to right-of-way issues. That is completely believable given the location of the truck stop.

These would be the fifth and sixth J-turn intersections in Iowa, following the existing one on US 20 near Fort Dodge, one proposed for US 30 at DeWitt, and two coming to US 75 southwest of Merrill

Now, if these are going to be inflicted on the drivers, the absolute least that can be done in return is restoring the expressway south of Holstein to a true four-lane, right? Right?

September 28, 2025: Traffic moves on southbound US 218 at the intersection of 260th Street, with Easton Avenue behind the camera. On Monday, traffic switches to head-to-head in the existing northbound lanes (foreground). The position of this picture, once construction is done, will be just east of the east edge of a roundabout for 260th and the new northbound 218’s on/off ramps.

Today, US 218 traffic between Janesville and Waverly becomes head-to-head in the existing northbound lanes. This is to add paving connections for the future full traffic shift onto a new roadbed for the interchange north of Janesville.

Although this is only officially stage 2 of 7, this is a major advancement. Step 1 was closure of the east-west road and grading/paving every component of the new interchange that could be done without interfering with traffic on the present four-lane. Step 3 involves moving traffic to head-to-head in the new southbound lanes, over the bridge in the photo, while the east side of the interchange is built. That includes converting part of present northbound 218 into a frontage road, although the part seen above will be removed as the frontage road will bend to make room for a roundabout.

The Iowa DOT’s Bremer/Black Hawk County Facebook page has some aerial (probably drone) views of the interchange construction, but I can only see about one or two because I refuse to create a Facebook account.