{"id":16241,"date":"2026-04-14T10:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T15:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/?p=16241"},"modified":"2026-04-13T22:36:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T03:36:41","slug":"state-center-shuts-down-j-turn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2026\/04\/state-center-shuts-down-j-turn\/","title":{"rendered":"State Center shuts down J-turn"},"content":{"rendered":"

In mid-March, the Iowa DOT reversed itself<\/a> on plans to change the US 30 intersection on the south side of State Center into a specialized type that limits turning. It’s about the “J-turn”, rebranded a “reduced-conflict intersection,” which involves traffic wanting to turn left from the intersecting road to the main highway being forced to turn right and then make a U-turn.<\/p>\n

The KCCI story about it puts it down to one simple reason: Everyone in State Center hated the idea. At the end of 2024, when I wrote about plans to change this intersection as part of a Transportation Security Improvement Program grant<\/a>, I relied on other reporting to say State Center had buy-in. However, it appears that something changed. I just know that during the planning, that was the only time there wasn’t immediate, universal public opposition to this type of intersection.<\/p>\n

For now, instead, the DOT will build “offset right-turn lanes,” which involve right-turning traffic from US 30 having a mini-median between it and the mainline. These offset right-turn lanes have popped up in a couple places recently, including eastbound IA 8 to southbound IA 21 in Dysart and northbound IA 14 to eastbound IA 96 south of Conrad. The offset lanes also appear on the new US 30 four-lane in Benton County, most notably at the Van Horne\/Blairstown corner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In mid-March, the Iowa DOT reversed itself on plans to change the US 30 intersection on the south side of State Center into a specialized type that limits turning. It’s about the “J-turn”, rebranded a “reduced-conflict intersection,” which involves traffic … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16242,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16241\/revisions\/16242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}