Key ramp at I-80/380 opens this week


March 12, 2007: Eastbound I-80 at I-380. I probably have a better picture of this, but archive searching isn’t what it used to be for me.

The most important inner loop ramp of the I-80/380 cloverleaf interchange is being replaced with a flyover ramp this week, according to a press release from the Iowa DOT (story/reprint: Gazette, KCRG). The shift should be done by Christmas.

The flyover ramp is the Des Moines-to-Cedar-Rapids connection, and has been a bottleneck for a while. The ramp from eastbound 80 to southbound US 218, which needed to move outward a bit for this ramp to open, has been in use for a little while.

In conjunction with the flyover’s opening, two inner loops will be closed permanently: The EB-NB loop it’s replacing and also northbound 218 to westbound 80 underneath. To go from, say, the Melrose Avenue exit toward Des Moines, a traveler will need to go up to the Forevergreen Road exit and turn around.

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