August 8, 2009: The Youngville Cafe will be preserved when an interchange for US 30 and US 218 is built in 2018. Ramps will be in the northwest and southeast quadrants, with a north-south bridge. An access road to the cafe will run from 218.
Last week at the Iowa Transportation Commission’s May meeting — the same meeting that saw John Putney of Gladbrook elected chairman — the draft of the five-year transportation program was released. The highway stuff is at the end of this large PDF.
In addition to the ongoing projects — there’s a list, but somehow “U.” was eliminated from the “U.S.” lines — some new ones have made it. A rundown of the big stuff:
- Four-lane US 30 in Tama/Benton counties is specified as benefiting from the gas tax increase. Upgrading the 27 miles, with two interchanges, will cost nearly $225 million. The Tama County part will come first, in 2018/20, followed by Benton County in 2021-22. However, the US 30/218 interchange is scheduled for next year!
- The IA 58/Viking Road SPUI is set for next year too.
- There’s nothing but erosion control on US 20 in Ida and Sac counties — because the four-lane will be done!
- The mega-project in Council Bluffs continues throughout the years in the plan, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel in Sioux City, where the I-29 rebuild is scheduled to wrap up at the end of this decade.
- The rest (and vast majority) of the I-74 bridge is in this plan.
- The I-80/380 interchange replacement will begin in earnest in 2019, after the Forevergreen Road exit is built.
- The Mount Vernon/Lisbon bypass will be paved in 2019 and old 30 fixed up in 2020 before being turned over.
- The rest of new IA 100 will be done in the next couple of years.
- An I-380 exit at Tower Terrace Road is planned for 2022. There is a lot of stuff for Linn County in this plan.
- That I-80 meeting near Moscow this week was about a bridge replacement and paving scheduled to start in 2022. There’s also a bridge replacement/grade-and-pave project marked for I-80 in Dallas County between the US 169 and Van Meter exits; it will be interesting to see if that’s set for four lanes or six.
- Upgrading US 61 to four lanes between Burlington and Mediapolis has a drawn-out timeline, spanning all five years; a Mediapolis bypass isn’t in the timeline yet.
- The Southwest Arterial will have bridges and grading in 2018 with paving (and completion!) in 2019. US 52 will be rerouted and IA 32 decommissioned at that time. See also this update from the city of Dubuque. Also, the stoplight at Menards just south of Old Highway Road will be removed next year, and the intersection blocked, after a frontage road is built, the Telegraph-Herald reports.
- Also in Dubuque County, US 20 will get an interchange at Swiss Valley Road — this is where the four-lane changes direction. See this blog post.
- The eastbound I-80 rest area at Victor, which for decades was a welcome center in the middle of the state, will be replaced in 2020.
- The US 65/IA 117/IA 330 interchange will be done next year.
- Reconfiguration of the I-80/IA 141 interchange will mostly take place in 2019 and 2020.
- Finally, among all the little projects, US 63 is supposed to get “pavement widening” between Toledo and Traer next year. That’s interesting. I don’t think that north-south part of 63 has been resurfaced in my lifetime. The shoulders are plenty wide, so perhaps the “widening” is adding the half-width grooved asphalt edging.