Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

New lanes on US 30, the future eastbound lanes of the four-lane expressway, opened Oct. 24. The Benton County engineer told the supervisors the change was made that day, Jim Magdefrau reports. The segment in question is from 11th Avenue (one mile east of IA 21) to just west of V44 (the Luzerne corner).

This is necessary for construction of the new westbound lanes, which will be almost but not quite over the existing roadbed. The new lanes will be more level. This is especially evident at the Keystone corner.

This change removes US 30 from the Lincoln Highway roadbed in western Benton County, from V40 (old IA 131, the turn south to Belle Plaine) to just east of US 218. From that point east to half a mile west of the Atkins corner (old IA 279), westbound 30 is built over the Lincoln Highway, and from there to half a mile east of the county line, eastbound 30 covers it.

The news was far from the most important part of the supervisors meeting. A statement from the board following the firing of the entire Benton County Board of Health was part of a much more consequential issue.

(Checking info for this post is how I found out the DOT has switched to winter conditions as default on the 511 map. By the time this post goes live, parts of Iowa may have seen flurries following the drastic temperature drop and hard freeze over the weekend.)

EDIT: Of course I forgot to schedule the post.

The new ramp from southbound I-29 to westbound I-480 in Council Bluffs opened on Oct. 16, completing the redesigned interchange of the two freeways. KSOM-FM had a news brief before the opening and the Iowa DOT announced it in a Facebook post. For whatever reason, it was not on the DOT’s press release page. The opening came 10 days short of six years after a public meeting about the project.

A video posted on the Iowa DOT’s Facebook page (which is a pain to get to if, like me, you boycott the site as a matter of principle) has drone footage of the new interchange system as part of an explainer of how to navigate the ramps. Notably, the southbound exit is Exit 53, while the northbound exit is Exit 53B. Also on southbound I-29, there’s only one exit to all Council Bluffs points between North 25th and South 24th streets. It’s a redone ramp at the former Avenue G exit that becomes a new frontage road.

As seen in this video from last year, eastbound 480 to eastbound Broadway now requires taking Exit 0, which used to be signed as Dodge Park and is now Riverfront. The new fork for the I-29 ramps does not have exit numbers, but I think they should have been signed as 0B-C (with Riverfront as 0A) or at least 1A-B. The ramp to southbound I-29 has an additional split before the merge into the mainline, with a ramp to 9th Avenue.

Even before the opening of the last ramp, every picture on the Iowa side on my I-480 page became outdated as construction progressed. Sadly, I have no idea when I will be able to get to Council Bluffs again.

The only unfinished construction on the interstates in the Council Bluffs area is I-80 at the Madison Avenue exit on the east side.

US 30 in eastern Nebraska is getting some changes.

On June 15, a new alignment of the highway opened from the top of the Fremont bypass west to west of North Bend. This removed 30 from a long portion of original Lincoln Highway (or right next to it), including through the unincorporated map dot of Ames. A completed four-lane between Fremont and Columbus should be open by the end of 2024.

NE 79 traffic at North Bend cannot go straight through the intersection with new 30. The Nebraska Department of Transportation has built what it calls a “reduced conflict U-turn” and what Iowa calls a “reduced conflict intersection”. A decade ago this new intersection design was called a J-turn and was roundly rejected at the public meetings regarding improvements for the 65/330 and 30/218 intersections.

Also in Fremont, a roundabout-infested cutoff for US 77 has opened. Now northbound 77, just north of the Platte River, goes slightly southeast and east to join the US 275 freeway. This lengthens the multiplex with 275.

A southern bypass of Blair, from Wal-Mart to near South 10th Street, will take truck traffic out of downtown. That could also be completed by the end of 2024, KMTV reports. Presumably, US 30 would be rerouted onto this bypass, although there’s a chance it could be labeled only a truck route.

These changes also mean that my state-level clinch of US 77 and near-clinch of US 30 are spoiled, so I’ll have to hit the area on a trip west. (If, that is, I ever get a job that will allow me to travel again. Will still proofread for food.)