Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

The DOT has released final plans for four-laning US 61 from the north end of the future Mediapolis bypass to just north of IA 78, including a new interchange with a slightly extended IA 78. Typically, there would be a scheduled meeting, but it’s been replaced with a 12-minute video instead. (NOTE: There’s a typo in the filenames; they say “US6” instead of “US61”.)

As the project statement affirms — or perhaps admits — this is the continuation of a process that got under way in the fall of 1996! The idea of four-laning all of 61 in Iowa goes back 30 years before that! It’s one of the projects killed in late 2001 when the DOT said it was expecting a $300 million funding shortfall. It’s also one of the projects currently on the schedule only because of the increase in the state gas tax a while back.

US 61 between Burlington and Grandview has four chunks, and based on last year’s five-year plan and some media coverage, here’s what I know or think:

• Burlington to south of Mediapolis: To be done by the end of this year. Parts of 61 are being left behind.
• Mediapolis bypass: Paving currently scheduled for 2024.
• North of Mediapolis to IA 78: This is the subject of this spring’s meeting. With grading scheduled for 2024, paving wouldn’t happen until 2026. Nearly all of present 61 will be left behind.
• IA 78 to IA 92, including Wapello bypass: This is the last link in four-lane 61 in southern Iowa and the most environmentally sensitive part, through the Iowa River valley. My estimate is that Thanksgiving 2028 is optimistic and Thanksgiving 2030 more realistic, which would be 16 years after a commitment was made to bypassing Wapello and not five-laning the current road. How traffic would then get between the four-lane and Wapello has been a tug-of-war. An agreement has probably been reached, but I think you’ll understand my hesitation on that point.

July 15, 2007: One of the places getting new BGSs and exit tabs on IA 27/58 in Cedar Falls.

In Cedar Falls, the Avenue of the Saints is officially IA 27/58. The IA 58 freeway was talked about for decades before it got built, and held that designation for a few years before 27 was added. In this case, retaining the now-redundant 58 makes sense because that’s what everyone has called it.

The mile markers, however, reflect the lower number 27, and that’s where a long-overdue addition is coming this summer. University Avenue will be Exit 183 and 18th Street/Waterloo Road will be Exit 184, as I noted they should be on the IA 58 North page. The signs are part of the DOT’s May lettings.

Viking Road was signed as Exit 181 when the SPUI was finished. That means a Greenhill Road exit, should one ever be built there, would be 182. (Related: Has there been a renewal for the corridor preservation zone here? The active one might have expired a month ago.)

The exit numbers track closely with US 218’s in Waterloo, despite a few differences in their routes from their south ends.

Once again, the annual list of Iowa’s structurally deficient bridges includes Eighth Avenue over the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids. The list comes from the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, a “nonpartisan federation” promoting investment in infrastructure. It pegs the bridge date at 1938, but I’m not sure that tells the whole story.

The first bridge was built in 1938, or started at least. The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported on August 31, 1938, that George Koss Construction bid $167,777.77 to build the bridge. US 30 was rerouted onto it in 1940 and would use the bridge for 13 years.

However, the bridge got an overhaul in 1970. The Gazette said on September 30, 1969, that reconstruction “will include removal of the present 42-foot-wide bridge deck and the construction of a 52-foot deck plus two five-foot sidewalks.” On November 5, the Gazette reported the contract went to Cramer Bros. Construction for $639,050. This was more than expected, but inflation was high at the time. (Seven months earlier, when the public improvements commissioner thought it’d be $300,000, the main 1A story was President Nixon asking Congress “to retain the full 10 percent income tax surcharge through mid-1970.”)

Does that count as a new bridge? The piers are original, and the beams probably are too, so half-and-half at best. The deck and everything visible at street level is 1970, although that portion is showing its age as well and at some point every other streetlight pole got sawed off. Cedar Rapids has a target date of 2023 to replace the bridge, with integration into the flood control system, at a cost somewhere around $30 million. Before inflation, that is.

The Iowa DOT has announced that starting tomorrow, US 20 between the US 63 and IA 21 exits will move to head-to-head traffic to remove and replace the pavement in the eastbound lanes. (Is it Infrastructure Week here? — Ed.)

The press release states that this phase will last until July, and then I presume the same will happen to the westbound lanes. The first concrete here was laid in 1984, but not signed as part of 20 until 1986. I don’t know if there has been a complete replacement in between.

There will not be temporary connections from the ramps, judging by the release. Instead, all ramps on/off eastbound 20 will be closed at 63, 21, and Ansborough Avenue. Official detours will come later. I think that the best connection between 63 and the Crossroads Mall area would be to cut across D52 or D35 to 21. (To head to Dubuque, 21 to Shaulis Road — there’s a stoplight there now — to 218 near the casino.)

I think this project will preclude a photo refresh of those interchanges this year. I know the Waterloo area could use one.