{"id":2026,"date":"2012-07-17T13:44:49","date_gmt":"2012-07-17T18:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/?p=2026"},"modified":"2012-07-17T13:44:49","modified_gmt":"2012-07-17T18:44:49","slug":"off-the-grid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2012\/07\/off-the-grid\/","title":{"rendered":"Off the grid"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nThe title of the marker, “How Correctionville Got It’s Name!” is both enthusiastic and mispunctuated. It’s “its” not “it’s”.<\/em><\/p>\n

Correctionville, in Woodbury County, is named for the survey correction line<\/a> that runs through the town and across the state. The offset in the county lines is related to this line. Another offset runs<\/a> on the Muscatine-Cedar county line above the southern tier of the counties to the west.<\/p>\n

At various points in its history, US 20 has followed significant portions of the line across the state. Segments from Dyersville to Raymond, the Black Hawk-Grundy county line to IA 14, Williams to Duncombe, and Early to the east edge of Sioux City hewed on or closely to the line.<\/p>\n

With the construction of four-lane roads, though, new segments often stray from the grid, either slightly or running on the half-section. Much of new 20 from Early to Moorland will be about a mile and a half south of the correction line; new 20 in Grundy County is half a mile off.<\/p>\n

US 20 in Woodbury County carries both varieties of this highway evolution. West of Moville it was moved on to the grid, four miles through Moville have always been half a mile off, and from\u00a0east of Moville to east of Correctionville it was moved off of the grid. Then, at L37, it returns to the grid to run along the east-west portion of the Woodbury-Ida line.<\/p>\n

The segment west of Correctionville is the one with the newest construction plans out. The DOT plans to move much of entire four-lane road just a smidge north, removing the current two-lane in favor of building a 21st-century roadbed. It also moves the right-of-way acquisition mostly to the north side. The PDF map available online<\/a> shows the new four-lane gently weaving through or beside the half-section grid line.<\/p>\n

For more information, here’s a story from KTIV<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n