Greenhill Road exit plan a roundabout mess

There are two intersections left on IA 27/58 between US 20 and US 218. As with Viking Road (a SPUI), the Iowa DOT wants to convert the Greenhill Road intersection into an interchange. Once again (AAAARRRRGGGHHHH), the presentation is a narrated slideshow rather than a PDF.

It will not be a SPUI, an option explicitly dismissed in the slideshow. It won’t be a diverging diamond either. It will be, instead, what the slideshow calls a “dogbone”, a stoplight-less mess of curves like what happened with the University Avenue exit to the north. It is not a true double roundabout. Instead, it’s a hideous hybrid that’s a nightmare in regular conditions, let alone snow.

A visual is here; the map is here. Like with Viking Road, IA 27/58 will be reconstructed to go below ground level while Greenhill will be raised slightly.

The land around the future interchange is owned by either the University of Northern Iowa or the city of Cedar Falls. There is no reason this could not be a SPUI or a diverging diamond.

According to the slideshow, work won’t begin until early 2028 at the earliest and take 2.5 years. It will cost $61.1 million in 2024 dollars.

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