A quarter-century after a southern bypass of downtown Des Moines began, it’s going to reach US 65 by the end of the 2020s.<\/p>\n
The Des Moines Register<\/em> reports<\/a> on the city’s announcement that $34 million will go to the project. Construction will start in 2025. The money comes from the Infrastructure For Rebuilding America fund<\/a>, which was created in 2015 and is designed for projects “of national or regional significance.”<\/p>\n The idea of some sort of connector and\/or relief route had been percolating since the construction of I-235, but there were plenty of obstacles along the way, including land acquisitions.<\/p>\n The most difficult and expensive part of the Southeast Connector project has been the bridges. This last piece includes a viaduct at the east end spanning both Fourmile Creek and a railroad line. The Martin Luther King Boulevard project was the first part of this long-term idea, so it’s bridges at both ends and in the middle at the Des Moines River that made this both critical and seemingly vaporware (in a road context).<\/p>\n Currently, the Southeast Connector ends at Southeast 30th Street just southwest of the Iowa State Fairgrounds. A summer 2021 update on the project (PDF)<\/a> focused on the intersection of Pleasant Hill Boulevard and Vandalia Road just west of US 65. That reconfigured the area near the interchange to prepare for a road heading west-northwest.<\/p>\n Projects in other states that are getting money from this fund include six-laning I-10 between Phoenix and Tucson<\/a>; a bridge across the Columbia River<\/a> at Hood River, Oregon; and a container ship terminal at the Port of New Orleans<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A quarter-century after a southern bypass of downtown Des Moines began, it’s going to reach US 65 by the end of the 2020s. The Des Moines Register reports on the city’s announcement that $34 million will go to the project. … Continue reading