I-80 has a new max lane count in Iowa

The Iowa DOT reports that I-80 is open to five eastbound lanes on the Missouri River bridge. (The press release said Oct. 26, weather permitting; the weather did not permit, and a tweet moved it to the night of Oct. 28-29.) That was part of a project by the Nebraska Department of Transportation. Lane reductions happen almost immediately, though, with the exit to I-29 north and merging east of the 24th Street exit.

The five lanes across the Missouri — which as late as the middle of the last decade were only two — will be appropriate when the Council Bluffs Interstate Project is finished and I-80 splits into three local and three express lanes in each direction. Westbound bridge traffic remains striped for three lanes , making a total of eight. When that changes, I-80 will have its biggest Iowa capacity there instead of Des Moines or Iowa City, both of which have eight-lane portions.

Long-term plans may result in other segments of I-80 in Iowa with five lanes in one direction. I-80 in much of Omaha has a whopping 13 total lanes (seven westbound, six eastbound) for a short segment between US 75 and 42nd Street, 10 for much of the rest in the metro, and as of 2012, six on the entire 41-mile segment between NE 370 and Lincoln.

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