Iowa’s network of four-lane roads grew substantially in the 1990s, but it came with the tradeoff that most of them had at-grade intersections. That has proven to be a problem in certain locations as traffic increased. Right now, construction on an interchange between US 218 and C57 in Black Hawk County will result in the closure of all intersections between Waterloo and Waverly.
There are only two rural locations in Iowa where a four-lane intersects a numbered highway without an interchange. One is the US 65/IA 330 intersection, where an interchange should be built by the end of the decade despite the landowner’s efforts to fight it, and the other is where US 218 splits from the Avenue of the Saints at Floyd.
The death of a motorcyclist at the Floyd intersection last month sparked a meeting where more than 100 people voiced support for an interchange, the Mason City Globe Gazette reports. (I’d link to KIMT, but there is something on its website that triggers a download of some file, and that’s not good form.)
An interchange would have to be built to the southeast, away from a fill pond and a gas station, but not too far because there is a cemetery half a mile away. There’s a mention of a roundabout floating out there, in which case, (bleep) no.
The Floyd intersection has been added as a point of discussion in the Iowa Highway Commission’s meeting Tuesday, reports radio station KCHA, which also says there’s a truck stop being built at the location. That will complicate any plans for an interchange or grade separation.