August 5, 2017: This intersection of southbound US 218 at the US 18/IA 27 four-lane in Floyd is being turned into an interchange.
The Avenue of the Saints is getting another stoplight, but it’s only going to be around for a couple years.
Construction season is starting — though, as this KIMT story says, it hasn’t been feeling like it weather-wise. There is an immediate start to work on a new US 18/218 interchange at Floyd, where 218 leaves the Avenue of the Saints. Eastbound traffic will be moved to head-to-head in the westbound lanes for construction of a bridge. The other bridge will be built next year, according to the story, although it might be contracted in the next two months because the 2022-26 five-year plan crams everything into FY22 spending. For now, a stoplight will be set up at the 18/218 intersection.
IA 19 was paved between Nora Springs and Charles City in 1922, but it was not until a decade later that the diagonal bypassing downtown Floyd was built. Slightly similarly, perhaps, this interchange has been under discussion for a DECADE.
When the interchange is finished, multiple nearby intersections will be closed off, including at Liberty Street and Packard Avenue, which US 18 used to go in/out of Floyd before 1932. In addition, since the US 30 interchange is now complete, US 218’s only at-grade intersection with a US route for its entire length will be its south end at US 136 in Keokuk.