June 25, 2006: This little four-lane segment in Iowa, the US 20/59 duplex at Holstein, may not be isolated for much longer.
The Iowa DOT released its draft five-year plan Tuesday (PDF) (press release), and the entire segment of US 20 in western Iowa that isn’t four lanes has been added for construction. The split is at the west Ida/Sac county line, with the portion west to Correctionville programmed for paving in 2016 and east of the line in 2017, closing with the final two lanes from Moville to Correctionville in 2018. If that happens on time, the entire US 20 corridor in Iowa (save for the Julien Dubuque Bridge) would be four lanes 60 years after completion of the first rural segment outside of Moville. (Oct. 19, 2018. There’s the goal.)
Four-laning US 30 in Tama and Benton counties, plus an interchange on Nevada’s west side, are among the projects (with US 20, above) added specifically because of the increase in the state’s gas tax. Curiously, large ROW acquisition is not programmed in Benton County until 2020, perhaps indicating that the grade/pave in 2018 is only for two lanes. Paving in Tama County would be done in 2020. Here are highlights of other projects in the plan:
- The interchange for US 65/IA 117/IA 330 will be built in 2017-18. Before that, “an intersection conflict warning system is being installed” and should be done before Memorial Day (KCCI). A news story from KIMT in December about a similar system in Minnesota and a PDF from Blue Earth County MN offer a glimpse of what this may look like.
- Four-laning US 61 from Burlington to the south end of a future Mediapolis bypass, over the next five years (added with new gas tax money)
- Dubuque’s Southwest Arterial, over the next five years
- Council Bluffs and Sioux City interstate reconstruction, over the next five years
- The new I-74 bridge and related construction, in 2018-20
- The Mount Vernon-Lisbon bypass and IA 100 extension, both over the next four years
- Rebuilding US 63 in northern Waterloo, changing a railroad underpass to an overpass, over the next two years
- IA 58/Viking Road interchange in 2017 (an overview of the most recent plan for the IA 58 corridor can be seen here)
- US 52 Mississippi River bridge replacement next year; an overflow bridge will be replaced later, so get ready for multiple summers of significant detours
- On I-380, an interchange with Forevergreen Road will be built in 2019 just before a multi-year project begins to replace the cloverleaf interchange with I-80.
- Also on the cloverleaf front, I-35 and US 30 have work planned for the middle of the period.
- Six-laning I-35 between IA 160 and the new exit on Ankeny’s north side, in 2018-20
- IA 146 through Le Grand will be rebuilt in 2018.
- Conversion of IA 415/NE 66th Street from an old interchange to an intersection, which I mentioned at the beginning of this year, won’t happen until 2019.
- IA 98’s last hurrah will be its repaving, in 2017, with transfer of jurisdiction planned.