The Iowa DOT has put out its review of the 2017 construction season for the Council Bluffs interstate project. A lot has been done, but there is so much more to go.
The biggest development was the opening of the new connection from westbound 80 to westbound 29/80 on the east side of Council Bluffs. That made the exit to southbound 29 a right exit and also relocated the South Expressway (former IA 192) exit to a point inside the interchange. Check out the “virtual ribbon cutting” for this interchange component.
There’s one thing that report doesn’t cover that I found elsewhere: A “constructability review” regarding the I-29/I-480 interchange, something not expected to start for nearly two more years. The meeting in June brought up the possibility of shutting down I-29 entirely to build this system. What’s not clear to me in the discussion is if it’s about shutting down I-29 between I-480 and I-80, or the whole thing farther north as well. Theoretically, all I-29 traffic could be dumped on/off of North 16th Street (way to take that off the state’s hands, CB), but an alternative using only state roads involves surface-street US 75 through North Omaha.