The Des Moines Register reports that the Federal Highway Administration has approved plans for the Alice’s Road interchange on I-80. It is scheduled to open within two years.
This is the recently built Alice’s Road bridge as seen from the rest area in mile 118 in July 2010. Here’s an aerial view. It seems like it would be difficult to put an interchange there, let alone “open hundreds of acres for development,” without removing the rest area.
If you zoom out from that view, you can see how open the area is…for now. But just as urban sprawl has consumed the I-35 rest area near Ankeny, this one is likely doomed as well.