Press release from the DOT. The bridge will be closed ten hours a day for five days.
This is somewhat of a reminder that the new US 34 bridge across the Missouri River continues to be under construction. Mills County Economic Development has a picture of bridge piers being set in June and says the bridge will open in fall 2014.
if only because it was in the Big 12. Iowa State chose Gene Chizik. That’s one little nugget in a much larger, emotional profile of the Baylor head coach on ESPN’s website. It’s worth the read.
Briles’ Baylor team is now undefeated, thumped Iowa State with the latter’s worst point loss in school history, and goes up against Oklahoma tomorrow night.
Oh, and ISU also passed on Brian Kelly in 2006.
/resumes gouging eyes out
State Sen. Rick Bertrand of Sioux City wants the state to dip into its surplus, and spend $90 million a year for four years to four-lane US 20 between Moville and Early.
Gov. Branstad is “supportive” of finishing 20, but at the same time he won’t throw his weight behind either support of that specific proposal or raising the gas tax.
So how, then, is this significant construction project supposed to happen?
Between 2003 and 2008 the cost of asphalt doubled and the cost of steel tripled — and the gas tax has stayed a flat rate, regardless of the simultaneous doubling of gas prices. The West Virginia DOT has a 10-year listing of asphalt and cement prices for its project lettings, which offers a bigger picture. Cement has stayed somewhat steady, which is a positive because most new roadways in Iowa start as concrete.
Without one of two things happening — raising the gas tax or dipping into the surplus — it’s hard to see how US 20 is finished as four lanes across the state in any sort of decent time frame.
When the long, long-awaited four-lane IA 58 was built through Cedar Falls, the south portion had at-grade intersections. At the time, it was defensible, because there was little development in the area vs. today, there was a budget issue, and the DOT had just had a protracted battle in Waterloo over the US 218 freeway/expressway status (it was built as a boulevard with wide median and at-grade intersections). It was also before the Avenue of the Saints really got going, and the corridor is now part of that.
But 20 years later, the road has become a victim of its own success, and is woefully underpowered and potentially dangerous. The biggest problem, aside from being unfunded for at least three more years, is that there is very little room to fit in upgrades. But the DOT is going to try.
Viking Road, in particular (above), had development 10 and three years ago on the east sides, and also has a nature trail. To solve this issue, the two least-land-intensive interchanges are on the table, a SPUI and diverging diamond, which so far have been used very sparingly in Iowa. Even so, it would have to be about the world’s tightest SPUI. (Also proposed is something called a “double roundabout,” which NO. JUST NO.)
There are plans for the other intersections as well. Greenhill Road, north of Viking, currently has space around for a standard diamond. South of Viking, there’s a proposed diamond at Performance Drive, which currently does not intersect 58 and serves the industrial park. That diamond could also be changed into two half-diamond interchanges with frontages roads between Performance and Viking. (But bending the road seems unnecessary.)
Then there’s the US 20 interchange, which again is underpowered for the traffic. The minimum change would be to add a southbound-to-eastbound ramp for IA 27/Avenue of the Saints, but there are also multiple concepts for using flyover ramp(s).
All of the plans are in the “Display 1” PDF available at the link near the top of this post.
KPTL-FM (106.3) is all Christmas all the time.
Temperatures outside are in the 50s and will be for much of this week.
It’s very hard to get a second life going for a school building. Let’s hope this is a success.
Parts of the Coggon school may have been unused longer than others, given the building’s heavy presence in aggregators. Based on school board minutes, it looks like the elementary was in use until sometime last school year.
He’s been giving the weather in eastern Iowa as long as I’ve been alive. It will be weird to watch the news without him. The story does not say what he’s moving on to.
From left: U.S. Rep. Tom Latham, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, Waukee Mayor Bill Peard, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley and Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad hold shovels for the groundbreaking ceremony for the extension of Alice’s Road in Waukee on Friday.
The theme at Friday’s groundbreaking for the Alice’s Road extension in Waukee was persistence. Each member of Congress present — Sens. Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin, and Rep. Tom Latham — remarked about how city officials would consistently and persistently bother remind them about the need for financial support. The best exchange:
Grassley, in closing: Waukee Mayor Bill Peard said he’d be willing to rename the road for whichever senator got the money through. “I said I don’t want it to be named after me, because I want Alice to vote for me!”
Harkin, in opening: “Sen. Grassley wants Alice to vote for him? I didn’t know you were coming in from Chicago!”
Harkin also remarked that since Grassley is on the Finance Committee (which takes your money), and he’s on the Appropriations Committee (which spends your money), Iowans can be mad at both of them!
Harkin credited Latham for his role in shepherding the money through the House Appropriations Committee and then their work in conference committee.
Gov. Terry Branstad spoke first, talking about Waukee’s and Dallas County’s rapid growth and how this corridor would continue that.
All the speeches were given inside a tent on the south side of the intersection of Alice’s Road and University Avenue. All were relatively short, since the governor had a tight schedule. The groundbreaking followed, with a bunch of shovels on a pile of dirt placed for the occasion. After the main dignitaries, as shown in the top photo, Waukee and West Des Moines officials also got their turn with shovels.
The cornfield behind the groundbreaking area had already been harvested. From now on it will be a focus of suburban development. (I wrote about that 13 months ago.)
KCCI has a story, but the accompanying video is about Hickman Road, not Alice’s Road.
With it being Halloween and all, here’s a scary story from the Waterloo Courier regarding University Avenue, old US 218, between IA 58 and US 63.
But those speaking at the hearing were more concerned about the “preferred” design, which includes 11 roundabout intersections, reducing the road from six to four lanes in most places and adding bicycle lanes and recreational trails.
ELEVEN ROUNDABOUTS. In a span of less than five miles. One would be at the east end with US 63, making that at least the third roundabout in the state involving a signed state/US road.
If the state wants to get traffic off University Avenue, that would be a surefire way to do it. Business owners along the route hate the idea, and with good reason.
The plan is broken into two PDF files, a writeup, and a video on the DOT’s website. There is no timetable for actual construction yet.
Yes, University Avenue doesn’t serve quite the same purpose now as it did when it carried 218, and yes, it is time for a complete rebuilding of the road. But that is not the way to do it.
It is difficult to track and chronicle the statewide makeup of athletic conferences on the Iowa high school level. Mergers and attrition have brought the Cornbelt Conference in the northwest down to six members this school year, right before it disintegrates completely.
Unlike the top college levels, though, the Iowa conference process has more or less been perpetually shifting, with no signs of letting up.
The newest change may be in northern Iowa, where the Mitchell County News reports that Riceville may drop out of the Corn Bowl Conference after a proposal to merge the Corn Bowl and North Iowa conferences was floated. Its next home may be the Iowa Star Conference, although the nearest current member is Janesville, over an hour away.
Riceville has really been hammered in the past decade enrollment-wise. It’s lost a quarter of its student population and dropped to 8-man football.
North Tama and GMG both entered the Iowa Star a decade ago because they were the smallest schools in the North Iowa Cedar League.
The bigger story is that “superconference.” The linked article says there could be up to 20 teams in two divisions. Are there other such proposals on the horizon? We’ll have to wait and see.
