June 4, 2014: Old US 20 east of Cushing. (Same picture I used Feb. 11)
After the recent passage of a 10-cent increase in Iowa’s gas tax, the DOT has fast-tracked more work on US 20 to make it four lanes across the state. The segment from Correctionville to Holstein will be added to the five-year plan, and a public meeting was held on it at the end of March.*
Like the plans for US 30 in Benton County, this segment of four-lane 20 will not use the existing pavement, instead moving slightly to the south. If you look closely at the project map (PDF), the easternmost part of this segment does not need acquisition of right-of-way in the future median, because the state acquired it decades ago. (Drive it today and you can see a double row of fence posts on the south side of the road.) But the construction plans affect more than just the future expressway.
All of old 20 east of the east L22 junction will be obliterated (arrow below). There are no farmsteads for which old 20 is the only access, and the segment is already “Level B Minimum Maintenance” which is usually applied to dirt roads.
This concrete was poured in the late summer/early fall of 1932 and was part of US 20 until fall 1958. If it survived until the winter of 2018-19 (which it will not), it would have reached half the age of the state of Iowa itself. The building of this road is closer to the Civil War than the present day.
And now we’re going to lose it. That’s sad.
*I can not, can NOT, get video from KTIV or KWWL, which use the same website design, to work in any browser. But it’s there.