June 25, 2006: For more than half a century, the 1½ mile fraction of a four-lane US 20, mostly with US 59, stood alone surrounded by two-lane roads. I put a photo of the other end of this segment with a blog post in 2015 announcing the first five-year plan to include all of 20.
After a three-week delay, the detour for US 20 between Galva and Early finally took effect Monday. It’s part of the last stage of upgrading 20 to four lanes across Iowa. As late as September 2014, the four-lane 20 had no estimated completion. It took the Legislature increasing the state’s gas tax to allow for enough funding. For more about the history of advocacy and the current work, see this Spencer Daily Reporter story.
Last year, as part of the construction, one of the last remaining roadbeds of original 20 in Iowa was pulled out. New 20 between Eagle and Carriage avenues west of Holstein is a shade south of the section line. The “corridor” remains the same, which is more than can be said of the rest of 20 in Iowa. The original pavement east of L22 was taken out too.
By the end of this project, the only place that current US 20 and 1958 US 20 in Iowa directly co-exist outside of Dubuque is for one mile west of IA 140 and two miles east of Moville. The latter is where the first rural four-lane segment of 20 in Iowa opened, at the end of that year. (If someone doesn’t bring a 1958-model car to show or drive at the ribbon-cutting this year, it’s a huge missed opportunity.) That segment just made the cut for original inclusion in 1926, as old maps show that IA 23 in 1920 went through Moville instead of skirting the south side.
Of course, I would be remiss not to plug the Historic Route 20 Association, where a detailed map of US 20’s 1926 alignment has been created (through assists from me and Jason Hancock’s website). Iowa’s U.S. 20 Corridor Association posts periodic updates on construction.
It’s going to be a great day this fall for a ribbon-cutting 60 years in the making.