Since the opening of the Ottumwa and Kirksville bypasses, Waterloo has had more stoplights on US 63 than the entire route from I-90 to US 50/54 in Jefferson City combined. It was the only highway in the Waterloo area that did not get an upgrade from surface street to four-lane, although there is a project to make the situation on the north side better.
After reaching I-90, a US 63 traveler encounters the last big slowdown on the route: Broadway through downtown Rochester, Minnesota. That will cease to be the case next year.
US 63 is going to be rerouted around Rochester. I first saw this in the application to the U.S. Special Committee on Numbered Highways, and it was corroborated by two recent articles in the Rochester Post-Bulletin. Like nearly all such cases in the 21st century, the reroute will become longer in length but shorter in travel time. The timetable set in one article is “by the middle of next year.”
What is Rochester going to do with it? In short, it’s going to redesign the road into something car-unfriendly and make drivers think twice about using it. Of course, the city does not exactly see it that way, but read the description:
Adjust traffic-signal timing to slow traffic to between 20 and 25 mph. Narrow traffic lanes, include room for bicycles and restrict some left-hand turns.
(Kurumi’s Roadgeek Dictionary: Traffic calming is “the idea that enraging the motorist will prod him to select a different route.” It’s ironic that the home of the Mayo Clinic would want to raise drivers’ blood pressure.)
It will be a notable moment for US 63 when the route changes. Rochester’s Broadway won’t be a broad way anymore. The biggest, time-draining bottleneck in the entire route north of Jefferson City will be Waterloo. There are still cities and towns along the way, of course, but with the possible exception of Oskaloosa the time won’t drag on that long. There will only be five stoplights for 63 in all of Minnesota — two in Stewartville, just south of I-90; one at Lake City, where 63 meets 61; and two in two blocks in Red Wing as 63 turns twice to enter/exit Wisconsin. (And at least one infernal roundabout, where the old and new routes meet north of Rochester.)
Once the IA 3 interchange is complete, a driver passing Airline Highway on Waterloo’s north side will have a relatively calm ride, with occasional places to slow down, all the way into Wisconsin. It’s not a bad move, but the road will be slightly longer.