Quietly, finally, 2017 Iowa state map released

During or shortly after the holiday weekend, the Iowa DOT put the 2017-18 highway map online. As I suspected, judging by the press release put out Monday, the ascension of Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds to the top job held the print version up (although there was no reason the PDFs couldn’t have gone up anyway).

The scenic byways approved in late 2016 have been added, including the Jefferson Highway. The clutter in the Des Moines area makes it impossible to tell if the Jefferson is/will be signed on the old alignment of US 65/69 (Indianola Avenue and Indianola Road, 7th Street, and Grand Avenue), but it does go through Shipley on its way to Nevada. A few gravel roads have been added to the map for this.

The reroute of US 71 in Sac County is on the map, although the red “30” miles north of Carroll still refers to the route through Lake View, rather than old IA 196/US 20 which is now 40 miles between Carroll and Early. IA 98 is still on the map, which to all indications is true, even though its decommissioning upon replacement of the Des Moines River bridge has been known for years now. In Council Bluffs, there’s a marker for IA 192 on South Expressway, but nowhere else; US 6’s reroute is marked.

A month or so ago, the DOT made some minor adjustments to its web pages and site hierarchies, so be aware that old links to maps may be 404’d. I didn’t catch it until I noticed the map page looked different.

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