Or, contra my post from May 2018, Wapello bypass plans UN-finalized. It appears I jumped the gun.
Completion of the last four-lane stretch of US 61 in Iowa outside Keokuk has been notable for the unwillingness of the two towns along the route, Mediapolis and Wapello, to take the state’s offer of only one interchange access point.
In the latest wrinkle, as reported by the Burlington Hawk Eye, the DOT proposed a “slip ramp” at the south end of the Wapello bypass. Instead of a dead end at the point the four-lane leaves the existing road, there would be a northbound-off southbound-on pairing. At the same time, two gravel roads would be severed along the bypass route and one road that was going to be closed will instead get a bridge, differences from the December 2017 EIS and May 2018 plan.
The city tried to one-up the half-a-loaf compromise by offering to pay for a full diamond interchange, but the state won’t allow it.
Look closely and you can see that the proposed four-lane is the third routing of US 61 south of Wapello. Besides the current road, the curves on J Avenue just to the east give away that that was used until 1932. It’s fitting, in a way, that the last part of original US 61 to be paved will be the last part to be four-laned about a century later.