Apr 19

Mmm…pi

Posted on Friday, April 19, 2013, at 10:20 AM by Jeff

Des Moines got a record 3.14 inches of rain for April 17 on Wednesday. To add a little perspective on this, its wettest April day ever was April 28, 1974 with 3.8 inches.

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Apr 18

Drought buster

Posted on Thursday, April 18, 2013, at 10:43 AM by Jeff

Nearly all of Tama County is now at normal moisture conditions, according to the Drought Monitor – and that doesn’t include any rain since Tuesday morning. Now the eastern third of the state is normal, and only an area around Sioux City is in “extreme drought”.

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Apr 17

Manitoba 75 now joins I-29

Posted on Wednesday, April 17, 2013, at 3:39 PM by Jeff

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
May 10, 2007: This is the only Manitoba Highway 29 shield ever posted…and now it’s gone.

When the northernmost part of I-29 opened in North Dakota, it took away traffic from one of the busiest port of entry stations in the United States, the one at the northwest corner of Minnesota going to Winnipeg. During the last decade, the US 75 Noyes/Emerson checkpoints were closed and the route has dead-ended at the international border ever since. What most travelers didn’t notice was that right before the port of entry, at the last intersection on the Manitoba side, Manitoba Highway 75 still went east toward Emerson. Its end was signed at Manitoba Highway 200.

Last year that was changed. Now MB 75 goes directly to the checkpoint and I-29. Google Street View went there shortly after the change, and a Canadian roadgeek has take pictures.

Ideally, this will be the change that gets US 75 rerouted from its dead end into Pembina and onto I-29 to meet the same-numbered road going to Winnipeg. It’s the reason the road north of the border is numbered 75, after all. Both Minnesota and North Dakota have to be in on the change, though.

Related: photo gallery from my May 2007 trip through Minnesota to Winnipeg and North Dakota.

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Apr 15

IA 86 closed to rebuild state line curves

Posted on Monday, April 15, 2013, at 9:52 AM by Jeff

The section of IA 86 north of IA 9 wasn’t built as a state highway. It wasn’t taken over until 1981. Since then, the tight curves that mark a shift in section lines at the state line have remained.

The construction planned for this summer will add shoulders and make the curve more gradual. However, it snowed in the area last week, and more snow may be on the way, which would delay the work.

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Apr 14

Football coach rankings

Posted on Sunday, April 14, 2013, at 3:00 PM by Jeff

In all but approximately a dozen places in the country, four losses year in and year out is likely to result in a building named after you, because it means 9 or 10 wins every season. But in an entry regarding one of those places, “has never lost fewer than four games in any season” is a negative for Bo Pelini.

Paul Rhoads is 38th on that list, and the highest with a losing record who has more than one season at his present job. Kirk Ferentz is 60th.

This post has been edited.
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Apr 14

101 years later, April 14 is a Sunday again

Posted on Sunday, April 14, 2013, at 11:40 AM by Jeff

(The moment occurred 12 hours after this post. Well, nine hours, adjusting for time zones.)
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Apr 13

Southwest Arterial: The last white whale of Iowa roads?

Posted on Saturday, April 13, 2013, at 3:05 PM by Jeff

US52reroute1965
US 52’s future may be in a short-lived piece of its past. (1965 state map)

It took half a century, but the most significant portions of Iowa’s 1968 freeway/expressway plan have been realized or put perceptibly on track. There are still parts of US 20 and US 61 that are not four lanes, and same for US 30 east of Ogden, but for the first two the remainders will be on or near existing roads, and partially included in five-year plans.

Dubuque’s Southwest Arterial is not.

For decades, Dubuque has desired a route to the west connecting the northern and southern routes out of the city. Two lanes or four was less important than its existence in the first place. Part of that dream today is IA 32, a road the state took over and extended in 2002.

But while in much of Iowa it would be geographically and topographically (if not politically or environmentally) easy to shoot out a short connection, the Upper Mississippi River is not one of those places. The Driftless Area is great for mining lead, bird-watching, and reminding 19th-century immigrants of Switzerland. It’s not as great for building four-lane highways. Much more after the jump. Continue reading →

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Apr 12

Getting wetter

Posted on Friday, April 12, 2013, at 2:44 PM by Jeff

Much of Tama County has now been upgraded to “abnormally dry” while farther east, the drought is “over” inasmuch as there are “normal conditions.” This week’s rain will shrink the red and orange areas even more.

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Apr 12

142 Addisons, 103 Bentleys(?!), 67 Jaxons, 60 Nevaehs, 33 Makennas

Posted on Friday, April 12, 2013, at 1:18 AM by Jeff

…and only five Melissas and five Jeffreys were born in Iowa in 2011. A bunch of other names in the Class of 2000 were also in single digits.

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Apr 10

State of Iowa 2-3 in ESPN’s Ultimate Bracket

Posted on Wednesday, April 10, 2013, at 10:03 AM by Jeff

ESPN picked the 63 best NCAA games organized by seed matchup/round-of-X and each Iowa team is represented. ISU’s win over Miami of Ohio in 1986 is the surprise guest here, an 81-79 overtime win on Jeff Hornacek’s last-second shot. UNI’s upset of Kansas in 2010 is here as well. The three losses, of course, are Iowa State’s, Iowa’s, and Drake’s worst first-round appearances of all time.

As one of now seven 15-over-2 games, Hampton keeps on haunting: “This game embodied the David vs. Goliath theme that attracts so many sports fans to college basketball in March.” Because when you hear about a basketball Goliath, you think about a team that has been to the Sweet 16 three times in its entire history.

(The best part of the Ultimate Bracket? Kansas loses three times.)

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