Central and eastern Iowa counties that are not on the present four-lane section of US 30 are very determined to get on it, and won’t take any half-measures.
From “The Center Square”, a news organization focused on “state- and local-level government and economic reporting”:
Eighteen counties, cities and other entities are partnering with the Highway 30 Coalition to oppose the Iowa Department of Transportation project, which would stretch between Lisbon to DeWitt. Instead of the five-year construction of Super 2, the partnership advocated for construction of a four-lane highway.
A Super-2 adds passing and acceleration lanes. It would not require bypassing towns. A DOT spokeswoman said, according to the story, that a four-lane would triple the costs involved (before inflation, I might add). The coalition has commissioned a study for later this year on feasibility of a four-lane corridor.
I covered the release of the 2019 planning study and noted that there are a lot of hazards, water and otherwise, to a four-lane corridor between Lisbon and De Witt. In 2017, I noted that traffic counts notably drop east of Stanwood. The link from then now goes to a 2020 AADT map, and it shows the same. In fact, by these counts, one could make an argument for four-laning all of IA 1 in Johnson County, or at least Iowa City to Mount Vernon, before more of US 30.
The story also reveals that the Missouri Valley bypass has been delayed a year. Farther west, Fremont-to-Schuyler in Nebraska is supposed to be getting a four-lane 30 sometime soon, though I don’t know where that is progress-wise.
In the meantime, my proposal from five years ago to dust off 30-year plans at the west 30/169 junction would seem like a comparatively easy component to get moving.