Category Archives: Highway Miscellaneous

Jan 08

A Transportation Commission meeting with a notable absence

The Iowa Transportation Commission is having its first meeting of the year today in Ames. The agenda is the most pedestrian possible. (Where’s the transfer of jurisdiction of those weird stubs still under state control?) But off camera, so to … Continue reading

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Dec 14

Another Exit Zero

I am a fan of Exit Zero. Not everyone is. Mile markers begin at the south or west terminus of a route or the state line. When the route has an interchange at that terminus, it should follow that the … Continue reading

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Dec 04

The US 20 reroute that wasn’t

The 1931 Iowa highway map includes an explosion of highway numbers across the state, in what I call the First Great Commissioning. Many of the routes that died in either 1980 or 2003 trace their history to this time. But … Continue reading

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Nov 07

Why the US 30-US 151 trumpet is backwards

In the southeast corner of the Cedar Rapids metro area, the US 30 expressway comes to an end (for another year, anyway) while US 151 heads north. This is not the original routing for 151; it was rerouted away from … Continue reading

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Oct 31

Evil has come to Fort Dodge

October 20, 2018: …but when the roadgeek turned around from this view on 2nd Avenue South in Fort Dodge, the street had vanished! It was a ghost sign, disembodied from the route it once served! While doing an online scouting … Continue reading

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Oct 22

US 20 finally open to four lanes across Iowa

October 19, 2018: Acting Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg (center) holds the ribbon to mark the completion of four-lane US 20 along with a host of government officials and members of the US 20 Corridor Association. Holstein, Iowa, October 19 — … Continue reading

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Oct 19

A celebration of Highway 20

Boston, Massachusetts, October 10, 2017 America’s longest highway begins in the cradle of the Revolution. From the five-way intersection about 2 miles west of the center of Boston you can see the lights for left field of Fenway Park, on … Continue reading

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Oct 17

After decades of waiting, a complete ribbon of highway

October 20, 2002: Concrete for new US 20 ends at the Grundy/Hardin county line, as seen from the B Avenue/Z Avenue bridge. A full gallery of that fall’s construction can be seen here. ============== U.S. 20 between Sioux City and … Continue reading

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Oct 16

The political effect, or not, of a ribbon-cutting

November 12, 2008: Gov. Chet Culver addresses the crowd at the opening of the US 34 Fairfield bypass, completing the expressway between Des Moines and Burlington first proposed 40 years earlier (although, as originally planned, it used IA 92 to Oskaloosa). … Continue reading

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Oct 15

One of US 20’s birth announcements

Highway Markers Go Up This Week In Ida County and elsewhere over the entire state of Iowa the handsome new state highway signs are being erected this week. In some localities, the county engineers began putting them in place Saturday, … Continue reading

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