After more than two hours of what was at times contentious public comment and debate, the Story County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to draft an official letter opposing the closing of several intersections along U.S. Highway 30 between Ames and Nevada. …
This intersection would cut off U.S. 30 access to Vetter Equipment Company, which invested $8 million into its new facility in 2013 for the specific reason that it offered access to the highway and increased visibility to potential customers.
I am very surprised that Vetter Equipment did not consider the possibility that access to 30 would be restricted at some point in the future. While closing intersections to turn an expressway into a freeway isn’t that common in Iowa, it’s happened before. In fact, it’s exactly what happened at US 30 and Dayton Road on the other side of I-35.
The opposition from the county supervisors will be something the DOT takes into consideration, but the question is if this stretch of US 30 rises to the same level of the US 65/IA 330 intersection where all sorts of half-measures other than an interchange are not getting the job done.