September 11, 2014: The trumpet interchange for the north end of Business 169 includes a road that intersects the west-side ramps.
A line item in the published agenda for next week’s Iowa Transportation Commission meeting has a surprise: “Transfer of Jurisdiction – Iowa 926 in Fort Dodge”.
The state has been turning over sections of urban arterials recently, including IA 92 through Muscatine and University Avenue in Cedar Falls (although the latter has been on the wish list for years). Secret IA 926 is signed as Business US 169, and has two major bridges, including the Karl King Viaduct that was closed in 2009 for urgent repairs. In that light, I’m surprised Fort Dodge is interested in taking over maintenance.
Fort Dodge City Council minutes from July 14 (PDF) and a paywalled Messenger article from the same time show the council already discussed it, so the Tuesday item is likely the last step in the process. I don’t know how much if any money the state is giving Fort Dodge to take the route off its hands.
The transfer would remove the last state maintenance from downtown Fort Dodge. The IA 926 route consists of the former easternmost part of IA 7 that went to the intersection of 8th Street and 5th Avenue, plus the diagonal Kenyon Road built in the mid-1930s as part of US 20. See the Fort Dodge Highway Chronology here. Signage of the business routes will be unaffected; Business 20 is already a mix of state, city, and county jurisdiction.