Feb 19

Last part* of I-74 bridge demolished

Posted on Monday, February 19, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

On Sunday, the Moline anchorage to one of the bridge piers of the old I-74 bridge was blown up in an explosion. Stories and video: KWQC, WQAD.

The subject of the fourth and final demolition can be seen in this video from October, when there was a different controlled demolition. It’s the bigger hunk of concrete, which was shaved down to near river level before Sunday’s action.

*The thinner piers in the foreground of the October video will remain standing. “Some of the piers from the old bridge will remain in place due to federally protected mussels around them,” WQAD reported at that time.

The remaining I-74 bridge assembly joins a similar one for the Ak-Sar-Ben bridge on the Missouri River as reminders of transportation past.

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Feb 16

You want fat? Let’s get fat

Posted on Friday, February 16, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

I wrote about food! Specifically, I wrote about the tradition of churches inviting people to come eat a certain type of food at a variable date in February.

Posted in Iowa Miscellaneous | Comments Off on You want fat? Let’s get fat
Feb 14

One legislative step toward I-435?

Posted on Wednesday, February 14, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

In 2016, I mentioned that Arkansas wrangled an exception into a federal highway bill that enabled a newly built four-lane road from Jonesboro to I-55 to be designated an interstate. The provision was to allow farm traffic to use a portion of the road since there was no easy alternate route. Immediately afterward, the road became I-555 and US 63 was eventually rerouted away from it.

(Much more recently, when it comes to highway designations, Arkansas has, as is its wont, again done something SO INCREDIBLY STUPID that it will have to be blogged about to be believed [at a future time]).

When the I-555 exception happened, I said that was the perfect thing for Iowa to do as well. Such an exemption is needed to get the Des Moines beltway designated an interstate with a unified number, ideally I-435. I-835 might also be an option (and a unique number in the country).

Last week, the Iowa House Commerce Committee approved a bill, House File 2145, now HF 2455. It specifically exempts farm equipment (“implements of husbandry”) from the minimum 40 mph speed limit for interstates on a specific road — US 65 around Des Moines — and allocates $250,000 from the general fund to study an alternative route for the farm equipment.

That would be one good thing to happen in the Statehouse this year.

Posted in Highway Miscellaneous | Comments Off on One legislative step toward I-435?
Feb 12

Oh well

Posted on Monday, February 12, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The Iowa Newspaper Association awards ceremony Thursday night recognized newspapers for their work between October 2022 and August 2023. The winning entries can be found here.

The Cedar Rapids Gazette won 40 awards. Three I had a minor hand in are Best Sports Section, Best Headline Writing, and Best Total Newspaper Design for Class V newspapers (the largest). I suppose General Excellence could be in there, since it’s based on point totals from all other categories. The sports section and headline entries — selected issues from specific weeks — include days I worked. I laid out most of the sports section for April 30, 2023, which included Drake Relays coverage. Those categories are all team efforts, so my name will never be on them, nor on any similar award in previous years. I guess I have to buzz my kazoo about it this way.

The North Tama Telegraph won some awards too.

The official INA press release has a typo in it: “Advertisiting”.

Posted in Iowa Miscellaneous | Comments Off on Oh well
Feb 08

I dig in to school enrollment for 2023-24

Posted on Thursday, February 8, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

My Substack piece this week is about the 2023-24 Iowa school enrollment numbers, with a map and two graphics. One of those graphics looks at Waterloo’s stagnant enrollment vs. Waukee’s astronomical growth.

The Des Moines Register, in its evaluation of private school enrollments and voucher use, committed a whopper of an error online: “Dallas County, which holds much of the Urbandale and West Des Moines school districts, is the wealthiest in the state, with a median household income above $90,000 — roughly the 300% cutoff for a family of four.”

Dallas County holds a good part of both cities, but precisely NONE of the Urbandale school district and a tiny piece of West Des Moines. Everyone in those cities living in Dallas County save for one subdivision goes to Waukee.

UPDATE: The DMR’s error also appeared in print.

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Feb 05

State Center still has concerns about US 30

Posted on Monday, February 5, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Left turns are a big problem on the south side of State Center.

Last week, residents and the Iowa DOT had a meeting about the increase in accidents over the past 18 months. This is the second such meeting in that time frame; see this blog post from August. The main issue is eastbound traffic turning north, which involves crossing the westbound lanes.

In the more recent meeting, the Marshalltown Times-Republican reports, DOT engineer Willy Sorensen said lowering the speed limit in the area would only be a “feel good” solution.

The intersection has a narrow median. This is likely due to the fact that about a mile of US 30 was originally built as four lanes here in the early 1960s. Then the highway west to Colo and east to IA 330 was upgraded to four lanes in 2010-11.

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Jan 31

Nevada bridge opens today

Posted on Wednesday, January 31, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The bridge for County Road S14 at Nevada should open today. That’s according to a press release from the Iowa DOT. The release notes that the 6th Street intersection will remain open. However, that is likely short term.

This bridge is part of the process to make US 30 a full freeway from Ames to Nevada. It is a long time coming and still has time to go. The first meeting on the long-term plan was in 2015.

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Jan 29

Who wants to read about county supervisors?

Posted on Monday, January 29, 2024, at 12:00 PM by Jeff

You do, right? With a full breakdown of what county has what type of board, by number and how they’re elected?

You’re in luck!

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Who wants to read about county supervisors?
Jan 26

That’s the story

Posted on Friday, January 26, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

What’s the tipoff that this item on the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier’s website wasn’t written by a reporter? I mean, besides the byline being “Lede AI Sports Desk.”

A reporter or even “person at the sports desk taking phone calls” would say simply East Marshall, or East Marshall of Le Grand. Only a bot would use the convention depicted here. Notably, the convention used by the state associations is “East Marshall, Le Grand”, as seen on the IGHSAU’s 2023-24 BEDS list.

The remaining two sentences are 1) the date of their last meeting — without a score — and 2) each team’s previous opponents — without scores. There is no indication where this game was even played (Hudson), unless there’s an automatic assumption of home team first.

A press release from Lede AI last March touted its relationship with Lee Enterprises (owner of the Courier and other papers). The big payoff, of course, is in search engine optimization. The website Futurism wrote at the beginning of the school year how multiple media chains across the country are using Lede AI.

I’m not sure how this is an improvement over a catchall page with scores from across the region or state, perhaps something related to multiple links getting hits instead of one. Someone who really wanted to know probably would’ve gone to the IHSAA’s or IGHSAU’s websites — or would have until recently, because that part has been outsourced too.

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Jan 24

Southeast Connector completion ahead

Posted on Wednesday, January 24, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

A quarter-century after a southern bypass of downtown Des Moines began, it’s going to reach US 65 by the end of the 2020s.

The Des Moines Register reports on the city’s announcement that $34 million will go to the project. Construction will start in 2025. The money comes from the Infrastructure For Rebuilding America fund, which was created in 2015 and is designed for projects “of national or regional significance.”

The idea of some sort of connector and/or relief route had been percolating since the construction of I-235, but there were plenty of obstacles along the way, including land acquisitions.

The most difficult and expensive part of the Southeast Connector project has been the bridges. This last piece includes a viaduct at the east end spanning both Fourmile Creek and a railroad line. The Martin Luther King Boulevard project was the first part of this long-term idea, so it’s bridges at both ends and in the middle at the Des Moines River that made this both critical and seemingly vaporware (in a road context).

Currently, the Southeast Connector ends at Southeast 30th Street just southwest of the Iowa State Fairgrounds. A summer 2021 update on the project (PDF) focused on the intersection of Pleasant Hill Boulevard and Vandalia Road just west of US 65. That reconfigured the area near the interchange to prepare for a road heading west-northwest.

Projects in other states that are getting money from this fund include six-laning I-10 between Phoenix and Tucson; a bridge across the Columbia River at Hood River, Oregon; and a container ship terminal at the Port of New Orleans.

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