This month’s Iowa Transportation Commission meeting included approval of Traffic Safety Improvement Program applications. (The two PDFs that compile the applications are detailed and large.) Included on the list of FY24 funding approvals is conversion of US 63 in Tama and Toledo to a three-lane road.
From 2016 to 2020 there were 25 crashes cited as “FTYROW” (failure to yield right of way) either from a stop sign or making a left turn, according to an analysis. The “Crash Analysis Tool Quick Report” and what looks like materials from a public meeting on the conversion make up the application. There’s also an overview of the projects on US 63 between US 6 and Hudson, including Super-2 between E29 and Traer in 2027*. Because this is not in the five-year plan, as I mentioned in my Dec. 5 blog post, it could be the second half of calendar 2027, i.e. FY28.
I’m not in favor of such a conversion in Traer, especially with the hill we have in town, but the before/after crash rate data is interesting.
Some of the projects that stood out to me, and some not specified by location in the recommended funding chart, are:
- “Speed feedback” on SB US 65 to SB IA 5 at Carlisle — there is a hard turn at the end of the ramp, because it was changed years ago, and this is probably a “Your Speed” display (construction in second half of 2023)
- “Curve improvements” on J46 (old IA 277) east of Numa — the angle of the road isn’t uniform as the road curves
- LED lights on “Wrong Way” signs at the offramp from westbound US 30 to southbound IA 330, 580th Street at US 30 (which is going to become an interchange soon, so they’ll have a short life), and B40 at IA 60 in Hospers
- Double-left-turn lanes on IA 100 at East Post Road in Marion
- Three-lane conversion of University Avenue (IA 163) between about East 14th Street and Easton Boulevard in Des Moines
- Change vehicle-triggered left turn to “protected-permitted” yellow arrow at a US 34 intersection just west of I-29 — this is where a truck stop closed for a while and I mentioned it in a blog post
- Flashing radar-activated “oncoming traffic approaching” light in the VERY northeast corner of Tama County, in fact so far northeast that technically the flasher would be on the Benton side
- Stoplight at northbound US 63 (1st Street) and Sycamore Avenue in downtown Waterloo
- Roundabouts (BOOO) at the following intersections:
- Johnson Avenue NW and 18th Street NW in Cedar Rapids, along the original route of the Lincoln Highway and pre-1931 route of US 30
- Manufacturing Road and 19th Street in Clinton, which is the pre-1931 route of US 30 intersecting the 1931-40 route of US 30, and a skewed intersection
- Hammond Avenue and Shaulis Road just south of Waterloo
- Army Post Road and SE 36th Street on the south side of Des Moines
*US 63 between Toledo and IA 96 is so bumpy it literally made my Fitbit believe I went up 140 flights of stairs when not driving.