Category Archives: Construction

For a variety of reasons, I’ve been going back and forth on US 30 in Benton County the past couple of weeks. This summer, crews have been working on the last part of the four-lane, from the Luzerne corner (V44) … Continue reading →

Tuesday night is going to have a rarity for highway construction plans nowadays, a formal meeting. An “updated preliminary design” for the US 61 Wapello bypass comes six years after the initial proposal. It includes a huge change. The new … Continue reading →

Starting today, according to an Iowa DOT press release, the intersection of US 218 and Maple Street on the north side of Janesville will be closed. A new road will be built alongside the railroad tracks heading north to a … Continue reading →

The Iowa Department of Transportation is having a special September letting. Contracts are accelerated rather than waiting until the normal date later in the month. Four of the lettings are in Bremer, Polk, Scott, and Story counties. All of them … Continue reading →

A construction project on Hess Road and La Porte Road on the south side of Waterloo started last week. The plan dates back to 2020 (large slideshow PDF here). It starts with a new roundabout at Hess and Shaulis roads and … Continue reading →

Last month the Iowa DOT held a meeting in Tama about turning US 63 into a Super-2 highway. Two large PDFs are online. The project is scheduled for 2026. Traffic will be detoured onto IA 8 and IA 21 and … Continue reading →

My annual breakdown of the big stuff planned for construction in the Iowa DOT’s five-year plan is on Substack.

The intersection of Fleur Drive (originally SW 21st Street) and Grand Avenue on the west side of downtown Des Moines had a history in the state highway system. Fleur was the main way for downtown traffic to get to the … Continue reading →

It has been more than a decade since the US 151-X20 intersection at Springville gained notoriety as a crash-prone spot. It’s been five years since upgraded warning signs were placed there. A long-proposed interchange will not be built for another … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →