September 29, 2015: A flavor of what the un-widened old US 71 looks like north of Fostoria.
Among the construction projects in the Iowa DOT’s January letting was a secondary road project in Dickinson County. It came through Ames on the federal-aid swap program; for information on that see here (PDF). The work is on a 2-mile segment, but one with a history: It’s on the first paved road in Dickinson County and one of the first in northwest Iowa.
In 1921, five miles of road were paved with concrete from Milford south to the Dickinson/Clay county line. For whatever reason, this segment is half a mile east of the straight line between Milford and Fostoria, an issue rectified in 1939. This road has had an asphalt overlay or two, so it’s not as historic as old 20 east of Cushing that we lost in 2017, but it has retained its narrow width.
The project this year will widen the road north of A43, leaving the southernmost mile and a half as its narrow self. (That, I believe, is where the photo at top comes from.)