Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

The IA 150 curve west of Urbana was the site of only five accidents in a decade, and one of them, a five-fatality crash, spurred calls for a look at changing the intersection. The curve, the end of old IA 363, could be taken out and converted to a regular intersection with the east-west traffic taking priority. There will be a meeting next Wednesday about the potential changes. The DOT has put the project statement online (PDF).

May 7, 2006: This exit ramp on I-35/80 will be replaced with a flyover ramp that leaves the mainline just north of Meredith Drive.

The Iowa DOT will hold a meeting Oct. 24 in Johnston to go over the final plans for adding two interchanges and modifying the IA 141 exit in the Des Moines metro area.

The “initial build” (PDF) involves a flyover ramp from NB 35/80 to 141 (replacing a loop ramp that comes to a stoplight), a full interchange at 100th Street, and two ramps to Meredith Drive. From Douglas Avenue to 86th Street, I-35/80 will have four lanes in each direction plus a fifth lane between on-ramps and off-ramps.

The “final build” (PDF) will add even more lanes, along with very long southbound exit/northbound entrance ramps at Meredith Drive. WB-SB 35/80 traffic will exit for Meredith with the exit for 141, then follow a new long ramp that will go over Urbandale Drive/141, the railroad, and a realigned onramp from SB 141 to SB 35/80. Drivers trying to get onto the interstate from Meredith, on the other hand, will have a dedicated bridge over Urbandale Drive, merge with the traffic coming from Urbandale Drive, and then have a chance to get into mainline interstate traffic before a double-lane exit onto 100th Street.

All these additional lanes will be built almost entirely within the existing footprint of the highways. A newly built Plum Drive, an arterial on the south side of the interstate, will help to alleviate some construction-related james.

The project is a far cry from the farmland the area used to be when the interchange was first constructed. A picture of the area from 40 years ago is on my IA 141 page.

Today, the easternmost 13 miles of two-lane US 20, in Ida and Sac counties, will close “until late fall 2018,” the Iowa DOT says in a press release. (See also this Cherokee Chronicle Times story.) This is significant not only for its distance and time, but because when the highway opens again, it will be as part of a complete four-lane 20 across Iowa.

The Schaller-Crestland and Galva-Holstein school districts, sharing as Ridge View, will be significantly affected, the Sioux City Journal reports. The Journal also mentions that traffic will not go through Schaller, but on two miles of newly paved road around the northwest part of town.

County Road D15 between Galva and Schaller was US 20 for the first decade of the highway’s life. So, just like how there’s a detour right now using D22 west of Correctionville, the final step in making the new highway involves a callback to the old one.