Mar 30

Waukee rest areas close Wednesday

Posted on Monday, March 30, 2015, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
September 28, 2012: The eastbound I-80 rest area near mile marker 119, as seen from the Alice’s Road bridge.

The nearly unused six-lane bridge has loomed beside them for years now, and the end is finally here: The rest areas on what used to be rural Dallas County miles from West Des Moines are going to shut down for good April 1. They’l be torn down and construction will begin on the Alice’s Road SPUI interchange on the border between Waukee and West Des Moines. (The cities want you to call it Grand Prairie Parkway, in the Kettlestone Development, which just smacks of…well, the kind of names they come up with in West Des Moines and Waukee and Ankeny and North Liberty.)

The sprawl made this inevitable. Eventually, the entire area will be surrounded by development. The rest areas were a nice place to stop right before/after heading through the Des Moines metro area, but now there will not be an official I-80 rest area from Adair to Mitchellville. (You’ll have to make do with the Kum & Go at the exit to the west of here.)

Posted in Highway Miscellaneous, Iowa Miscellaneous | Comments Off on Waukee rest areas close Wednesday
Mar 27

C57 at US 218 closes April 1

Posted on Friday, March 27, 2015, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

A press release from the Iowa DOT says C57 at US 218 south of Janesville will soon close for a year and a half for construction of an interchange. It’s the second interchange to be programmed in the area as traffic on the Avenue of the Saints has steadily increased, making intersections more dangerous. Because new 218 was built paralleling the railroad, railroad tracks will also have to be relocated and C57 will have an overpass there, as these maps from August 2013 show.

This interchange is years in coming, as these 2011 and 2013 articles from the Waterloo Courier show. This summer will mark the 20th anniversary of the opening of four-lane 218 between C57 and IA 57, completing four-lane links from Waverly to US 20 via both US 218 and IA 58. You can see the end of construction in this aerial photo from March 31, 1994.

When the interchange is completed and surrounding intersections are blocked off, US 218 will be a full controlled-access freeway from downtown Waterloo to the north side of Janesville.

Completely unrelated timed-blog-post note: Ear infections suck.
Posted in Construction | Comments Off on C57 at US 218 closes April 1
Mar 26

Reuters photo essay showcases rural Iowa, undersells Preston station

Posted on Thursday, March 26, 2015, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Reuters photographer Jim Young has compiled a photo essay of the Iowa countryside in conjunction with the beginning of caucus season. A slideshow with large pictures has a home on Reuters’ site, but the photo collection on Yahoo (also, sadly, a slide show) includes the complete captions with locations and dates. All the photos were taken in Iowa in the first three months of this year, and nearly all are in eastern Iowa, from Marshalltown to Walcott (with two in Des Moines).

To save you some time, here’s a link to a de-slide-ified version based on the Yahoo gallery.

The photos capture the state in winter very nicely, but one caption pair leaves a bit to be desired: “An old closed up gas station” is the George Preston Service Station in Belle Plaine, a famous Lincoln Highway landmark.

The Iowa caucuses are less than a year away.

Posted in Iowa Miscellaneous | Comments Off on Reuters photo essay showcases rural Iowa, undersells Preston station
Mar 25

Hamburg, Farragut must seal off old buildings

Posted on Wednesday, March 25, 2015, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The Iowa Department of Education earlier this month gave the individual Farragut and Hamburg school districts “conditional accreditation”, meaning that there will not be any forced dissolution, at least for another year. KMA stories: Farragut, Hamburg.

However, it appears that at least part of that “condition” requires closing down the old Hamburg school building (which had been planned), and also Farragut’s elementary and vocational buildings, all because they do not meet Americans With Disabilities Act requirements. In Hamburg’s case, for example, that includes not having “a van accessible [parking] space with a 96” wide access aisle” and “a plan to deal with all inaccessibility issues on all levels of the 1924 building.” Reports can be found via the links above.

In Farragut, this issue is going to be tricky because everything is at one site and is interconnected. I am not familiar with the school to say which part has been used as the elementary. In Hamburg, where the elementary and old high school/Nishnabotna Middle School (for two more months) are separate, the lockdown order is tight and irreversible (excerpt from report p. 19):

No portion of the Hamburg Middle School other than the kitchen may be used for any purpose, and all other areas must be rendered unusable for purposes other than cold storage. Entry to the Hamburg Middle School kitchen area must be restricted to kitchen staff and delivery personnel only for the duration necessary to operate the facility for the purpose of food preparation. Entry to all other portions of the building must be restricted to the facilities manager, janitor, superintendent, and a realtor as needed for the purpose of showing the property to prospective buyers.

The Farragut school board voted earlier this month for construction to make other areas of its buildings ADA-compliant to retain accreditation.

Posted in Schools | Comments Off on Hamburg, Farragut must seal off old buildings
Mar 24

State newspaper archives still piling up

Posted on Tuesday, March 24, 2015, at 10:06 AM by Jeff

This long story from IowaWatch and shorter one from the Gazette are disheartening for me as a researcher. Newspapers from across the state have not been microfilmed since 2009 and continued to be stored. The Legislature was going to devote money to filling the backlog, but the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs refused, IowaWatch says, “citing pending completion of a master planning process.”

This doesn’t make sense. Developing a future plan is something that should be done, but not at the expense of current practices. Microfilm, right now, is the best archival medium given the restrictions on making things digitally available. Websites disappear all the time, and copyright law isn’t going to be changed for something like this.

The reduction of research hours in Des Moines and Iowa City (and of staff in Iowa City) doesn’t bode well either. The Iowa City site offers closer access for major cities in eastern Iowa. Expansion of scanned resources — which I have used and love — is great, but I also have used microfilm extensively in my work.

I understand the need to be responsive to future needs — or future attempts at relevance — but preservation of already existing resources while a master plan is developed should be a priority.

(For what it’s worth, I wrote this before a Des Moines Sunday Register editorial covered some of the same ground.)

Posted in Iowa Miscellaneous | Comments Off on State newspaper archives still piling up
Mar 23

Howard-Winneshiek, Riceville drop hammers on each other

Posted on Monday, March 23, 2015, at 10:11 AM by Jeff

Last month, the Howard-Winneshiek school board abruptly ended its agreement to let Riceville pick up open-enrolled students near the school district boundary, and a week afterward Riceville reciprocated, the Waterloo Courier reports. Now open-enrolled students will have to find their own way to the other school (or at least the district boundary).

I think this is a consequence of Howard-Winneshiek’s cash crunch, which has led the district to close all buildings outside of Cresco. Open-enrolled students cost the home district money. It will be felt especially in Elma, which is closer to Riceville than Cresco and just lost its school building.

Elma is a notable example of an outlying town that has become distant from its school after decades of consolidations and closures. I would love for districts to mutually agree to smooth out jagged boundaries, but there are a zillion and a half reasons that will never happen, and two zillion and a half if a town of any size (like Elma) is involved.

Posted in Schools | Comments Off on Howard-Winneshiek, Riceville drop hammers on each other
Mar 19

Flameout

Posted on Thursday, March 19, 2015, at 2:06 PM by Jeff

Since early February, I have had two thoughts about this year’s ISU men’s basketball team: They can lose in the first round of the NCAA Tournament or win until they get steamrolled by Kentucky. — Me, about 60 hours ago

I hate it when I’m right. Iowa State doesn’t get to have nice things.

UAB 60, ISU 59. Done before 2 PM on the first day of the tournament in a game with enough bricks to build a new Campanile.

Iowa State is the fourth sixth team to lose first-round games as both a 2 and 3 seed, after Arizona, South Carolina, Missouri, Duke, and Georgetown.

Lost by 1, just like against Hampton.

False hope is worse than death.

BONUS INSULT TO INJURY: Iowa TV station promos are probably scheduled to run the whole weekend with “We’re following the Hawkeyes, Cyclones and Panthers in the tournament!”

UPDATE: Added South Carolina and Georgetown to the list of 2-seed/3-seed victims. In fact, now only one team (Syracuse) that lost as a 2-seed hasn’t also lost a first-round game as a 3-seed.

Posted in Sports | Comments Off on Flameout
Mar 19

What Lisbon bypass will do to Lincoln Highway

Posted on Thursday, March 19, 2015, at 10:00 AM by Jeff


July 6, 2013: The Lincoln Highway departs from present-day US 30 right at the Linn-Cedar county line. After the bypass is built, this intersection will still be here, but the road won’t be US 30.

Maps and documents for the US 30 Mount Vernon-Lisbon bypass were posted online after the public meeting earlier this month. On the fourth PDF, you can see that the east end of the bypass, which will extend into Cedar County, briefly runs four new lanes north of existing US 30 until coming back to the present two-lane near Charles Avenue.

Of the 2¾ miles of the Lincoln Highway that currently overlap 30 here — from the Linn-Cedar line, shown above, to where a gravel road crosses the railroad tracks before entering Mechanicsville — only about a mile will remain part of 30. The rest will be broken into two segments.

How will the Lincoln Highway Scenic Byway be signed after this happens? The fork will still exist, but it won’t be part of 30 anymore. Going west to east, from present 30, it will probably go south on Adams Avenue on an overpass, then east on a frontage road (labeled “Kirkwood 3” but probably a future 123rd or 125th Street), briefly use a left-behind piece of current 30, then get back on a frontage road (“Kirkwood 4”) to Charles Avenue where it will hook up with 30 just past the end of the four-lane. Existing 30 east of Adams Avenue will dead-end.

After seeing the bypass maps, this question arises: If present Adams Avenue will still exist, with an overpass over the bypass, the new diagonal road that will serve the Lisbon interchange can’t also be Adams Avenue, can it? Otherwise we’ll have the intersection of Adams and Adams. Since that will be the new gateway to Lisbon, perhaps the city and counties should confer on what to name that.

Posted in Construction, Highway Miscellaneous | Comments Off on What Lisbon bypass will do to Lincoln Highway
Mar 18

Pat Forde’s scenarios for ISU, Iowa

Posted on Wednesday, March 18, 2015, at 10:24 AM by Jeff

Pat Forde’s previews and thoughts for Iowa State and Iowa in the NCAA Tournament are out, as part of the South regional best/worst case scenarios. He doesn’t think ISU can lose in the first round, and didn’t even disparage Ames this time.

Bonus: Forde’s best/worst case scenario for Kansas also puts heavy emphasis on ISU. (Our arch-enemy! Cool, we have an arch-enemy! Also, Missouri basketball fell off the face of the earth.)

ISU’s tip time is Thursday’s second game of the day, while Iowa doesn’t play until Friday night. The UNI men and ISU women both start late Friday morning, which is unfortunate for those of us who want to see both.

Posted in Sports | Comments Off on Pat Forde’s scenarios for ISU, Iowa
Mar 17

Bridge on Linn Lincoln loop to be replaced

Posted on Tuesday, March 17, 2015, at 10:00 AM by Jeff


August 24, 2013: The Bloomington Road bridge over Big Creek in Linn County is part of the Lincoln Highway loop route through Marion.

An 85-year-old bridge in Linn County is too young to have been a part of the Lincoln Highway, and that may have contributed to its doom.

The Parker through truss bridge is east of Marion on Bloomington Road, a diagonal that is still gravel today. The bridge was built in 1925, but the Lincoln Highway was removed from Marion on Oct. 1, 1921*, when Mount Vernon Road was paved. The work on that was far enough ahead that when the state highway system was created in 1920, and the Lincoln Highway was numbered IA 6, the route into Marion became IA 94 instead. Although Bloomington Road remained part of the state highway system until 1961 after very briefly being part of IA 150, it was never paved.

Linn County did consider the bridge for preservation in 2010 (PDF), but a report made the same distinction I did above. It’s “not a Lincoln Highway-era bridge,” the report said, but “it can probably be stated that this historic-age bridge is more in keeping with the historic landscape … than a modern bridge.”

The bridge has serious/poor/deficient construction ratings and didn’t make the grade for preservation, and Linn County in October signed an agreement to get the bridge replaced next year.

*Date of completion from “The Seedling Mile” PDF by the Iowa DOT. Given that Marion lost the county seat in November 1919, and the first state map already used Mount Vernon Road, a case can be made that the Lincoln was really moved away earlier. However, Mount Vernon Road would have been un-travel-able during construction, so 10/1/21 is as good a date as any.

Posted in Construction, Highway Miscellaneous | Comments Off on Bridge on Linn Lincoln loop to be replaced