September 28, 2012: The eastbound I-80 rest area near mile marker 119, as seen from the Alice’s Road bridge.
The nearly unused six-lane bridge has loomed beside them for years now, and the end is finally here: The rest areas on what used to be rural Dallas County miles from West Des Moines are going to shut down for good April 1. They’l be torn down and construction will begin on the Alice’s Road SPUI interchange on the border between Waukee and West Des Moines. (The cities want you to call it Grand Prairie Parkway, in the Kettlestone Development, which just smacks of…well, the kind of names they come up with in West Des Moines and Waukee and Ankeny and North Liberty.)
The sprawl made this inevitable. Eventually, the entire area will be surrounded by development. The rest areas were a nice place to stop right before/after heading through the Des Moines metro area, but now there will not be an official I-80 rest area from Adair to Mitchellville. (You’ll have to make do with the Kum & Go at the exit to the west of here.)