Category Archives: Highway Miscellaneous

Jan 19

An I-380 sign overlay that never got placed

On southbound I-380 in Cedar Rapids, at the 27th Avenue SW overpass, there’s an overhead sign with the distance for the next, and last, city exit: 33rd Avenue SW. The bracket is designed to hold a sign with two lines … Continue reading

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Dec 20

IA 136 to be truncated after all

July 16, 2020: US 52 was signed along IA 136 between US 20 and Luxemburg even before the Southwest Arterial opened. This duplex will turn out to be short-lived. Remember when I said that US 52’s reroute through Dyersville should … Continue reading

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Dec 03

New I-74 bridge fully open; old fully closed

Thousands of people turned out for the grand opening of the I-74 bridge on Wednesday. (I, sadly, was not one of them.) The Illinois-bound span fully opened Thursday night, and the last lane in use on the 1959 bridge was … Continue reading

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Nov 08

Eating your way down the Lincoln Highway

WHO’s Roger Riley drove Iowa’s eastern half of the Lincoln Highway for a feature story. This means he got PAID to eat prime rib at the Lighthouse Inn near Cedar Rapids, an omelet at the Lincoln Cafe in Belle Plaine, … Continue reading

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Oct 01

Louisa County stops paying the ferryman

The distinction between farm-to-market and local roads once mattered to a great degree in highway systems. Even now, the designation is maintained, and the former is described as roads that “provide all-weather routes to destination points”. So when a county … Continue reading

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Sep 29

Bella Vista bypass opens this week

One of the Midwest’s longest-promised highway projects that never seemed to get off the ground for years is opening this week. The Bella Vista bypass will go across the Arkansas-Missouri state line and create a full four-lane I-49 from Fort … Continue reading

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Aug 16

Many state-level ‘poor’ bridges on replacement list

A few weeks ago, we got another round of stories about Iowa’s high number of “structurally deficient” bridges. This occurs regularly; I made a post five years ago about the bridge list then and their replacement timetables. As a reminder, … Continue reading

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Jul 12

Interstates rearranged in DC

June 26, 2009: This sweet old sign on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, will have to come down, if it hasn’t already. Notice the faint markings of a previous interstate shield under the DC-marked I-395 shield. The AASHTO’s Special Committee … Continue reading

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Jun 28

H45 switch in Arispe

Union County and the town of Arispe are “exchanging responsibilities for certain streets,” reports the Creston News Advertiser. It was supposed to be done in 2018 but didn’t get formalized. Officially, H45 has run along Forbes Street, as can be … Continue reading

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Mar 12

Catchup on stateline pages

July 24, 2019: I-80 meets I-29 right as it comes into Iowa. Technically, this gantry is on the Nebraska side of the Missouri River. Ahead is the current highway welcome sign. Some members of the Iowa Legislature see a need … Continue reading

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