Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

September 21, 2007: This LGS on US 63 at the east end of IA 175 is among those slated to be replaced, using a slightly different font.

Among the projects at the DOT’s April contract letting is a sign project centered on Tama County. Judging by the long list, all the shields and mileage signs will be replaced on US 63 from New Sharon to Hudson, IA 175 from the Hardin/Grundy line to its east end, and all of IA 8, 85, 96, and 146. It’s classified under “statewide” because while the project is in one contiguous area, it jumps DOT districts.

The replacement project maybe, eventually, will lead to new pictures, since there is a visible if slight difference in the kerning and style of letters. It’s probably not a recognizable change to drivers unless they’re paying attention to it (like I do).

The signs will probably be replaced sometime this summer.

Also out for letting this spring was the new I-74 bridge across the Mississippi River. It’s getting closer!

August 8, 2009: The Youngville Cafe will be preserved when an interchange for US 30 and US 218 is built in 2018. Ramps will be in the northwest and southeast quadrants, with a north-south bridge. An access road to the cafe will run from 218.

Last week at the Iowa Transportation Commission’s May meeting — the same meeting that saw John Putney of Gladbrook elected chairman — the draft of the five-year transportation program was released. The highway stuff is at the end of this large PDF.

In addition to the ongoing projects — there’s a list, but somehow “U.” was eliminated from the “U.S.” lines — some new ones have made it. A rundown of the big stuff:

• Four-lane US 30 in Tama/Benton counties is specified as benefiting from the gas tax increase. Upgrading the 27 miles, with two interchanges, will cost nearly $225 million. The Tama County part will come first, in 2018/20, followed by Benton County in 2021-22. However, the US 30/218 interchange is scheduled for next year!
• The IA 58/Viking Road SPUI is set for next year too.
• There’s nothing but erosion control on US 20 in Ida and Sac counties — because the four-lane will be done!
• The mega-project in Council Bluffs continues throughout the years in the plan, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel in Sioux City, where the I-29 rebuild is scheduled to wrap up at the end of this decade.
• The rest (and vast majority) of the I-74 bridge is in this plan.
• The I-80/380 interchange replacement will begin in earnest in 2019, after the Forevergreen Road exit is built.
• The Mount Vernon/Lisbon bypass will be paved in 2019 and old 30 fixed up in 2020 before being turned over.
• The rest of new IA 100 will be done in the next couple of years.
• An I-380 exit at Tower Terrace Road is planned for 2022. There is a lot of stuff for Linn County in this plan.
• That I-80 meeting near Moscow this week was about a bridge replacement and paving scheduled to start in 2022. There’s also a bridge replacement/grade-and-pave project marked for I-80 in Dallas County between the US 169 and Van Meter exits; it will be interesting to see if that’s set for four lanes or six.
• Upgrading US 61 to four lanes between Burlington and Mediapolis has a drawn-out timeline, spanning all five years; a Mediapolis bypass isn’t in the timeline yet.
• The Southwest Arterial will have bridges and grading in 2018 with paving (and completion!) in 2019. US 52 will be rerouted and IA 32 decommissioned at that time. See also this update from the city of Dubuque. Also, the stoplight at Menards just south of Old Highway Road will be removed next year, and the intersection blocked, after a frontage road is built, the Telegraph-Herald reports.
• Also in Dubuque County, US 20 will get an interchange at Swiss Valley Road — this is where the four-lane changes direction. See this blog post.
• The eastbound I-80 rest area at Victor, which for decades was a welcome center in the middle of the state, will be replaced in 2020.
• The US 65/IA 117/IA 330 interchange will be done next year.
• Reconfiguration of the I-80/IA 141 interchange will mostly take place in 2019 and 2020.
• Finally, among all the little projects, US 63 is supposed to get “pavement widening” between Toledo and Traer next year. That’s interesting. I don’t think that north-south part of 63 has been resurfaced in my lifetime. The shoulders are plenty wide, so perhaps the “widening” is adding the half-width grooved asphalt edging.

The Iowa DOT has two public meetings planned next week.

• The first, Tuesday at the United school, is the next step in relocating IA 17 off the Lincoln Highway east of Boone. As I write this, the new plan is not up, but here’s a link to my blog post from last year about the options being considered.
• The second, Wednesday at the maintenance garage at the I-80 Moscow exit, is a “corridor study” of a less-than-10-mile stretch of I-80. I suspect this is the first (or, really, approximately the negative-first on a scale of 1 to 5) step in six-laning I-80 in the area, since the Cedar River bridge is the first place on I-80 in rural Iowa that got that consideration. The accompanying “what happens in a field study” video is the animated-drawing-on-a-whiteboard style that reminded me of Weird Al’s “Mission Statement,” so to spice up an otherwise dry post I’ll include that instead.

June 5, 2014: The southbound lanes of US 75 (left) are at a higher elevation than the northbound lanes between Hinton and Merrill, and then again north of Merrill.

The stretch of US 75 from the north end of the Sioux City bypass to the south end of the Le Mars bypass does not have its lanes at equal elevation. That’s going to change on the northernmost part of that segment, from Merrill to C38, reports the Sioux City Journal. This year and next, the roadbeds will be equalized.

It’s the third-oldest-active segment of state-maintained four-lane, behind the other parts of 75 to the south (and yes, the Journal cribbed the last paragraph from Jason Hancock’s website via my research).

The other parts of four-lane 75 in the area will be leveled some time in the future, the article says.