{"id":4348,"date":"2013-12-31T12:47:23","date_gmt":"2013-12-31T18:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/?p=4348"},"modified":"2020-05-08T15:25:55","modified_gmt":"2020-05-08T20:25:55","slug":"for-the-second-time-since-1956-iowa-added-no-new-four-lane-roads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2013\/12\/for-the-second-time-since-1956-iowa-added-no-new-four-lane-roads\/","title":{"rendered":"For the second time since 1956, Iowa added no new four-lane roads"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4350\" alt=\"IF\" src=\"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/us20const2002.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/us20const2002.jpg 500w, http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/us20const2002-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><br \/>\n<em><strong>October 19, 2002:<\/strong> View from D Avenue in Grundy County during construction of a 27-mile four-lane segment of US 20. The freeway opened ten months later.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s time for the five-year update map to the <a href=\"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/maps\/fourlanes.html\">timeline of Iowa&#8217;s four-lane highways<\/a>, and while creating it a giant fact jumped out.<\/p>\n<p>Iowa <em>did not open<\/em> a new four-lane road in the 2013 calendar year. Iowa has opened something new every year except 1980 starting back in 1957, when a small part of I-29 opened in Sioux City and US 75 was four-laned between Merrill and Le Mars.<\/p>\n<p>There originally was supposed to be a new segment, US 34 to the Missouri River, but that has been delayed by flooding and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.omaha.com\/article\/20120504\/NEWS01\/705049915\">breeding schedule of a fish<\/a>. (Seriously.) In Clinton, the Liberty Square project was completed, but that was turning US 30\/67 into a six-lane urban boulevard, not a freeway or expressway. Just north of the state line, MN 60\/US 59 was finished south of Worthington.<\/p>\n<p>This isn&#8217;t to say that there wasn&#8217;t progress made on Iowa&#8217;s highway system in 2013. The state is pouring tons of money into Sioux City and Council Bluffs right now, adding bridges and lane miles, just not wholly new roads. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.iowadot.gov\/program_management\/five_year.html\">Look at the five-year plan.<\/a>\u00a0Turning a late-1960s four-lane freeway into a 12-lane behemoth with flyover ramps isn&#8217;t easy or cheap.<\/p>\n<p>If projects for US 20 and IA 100 remain on schedule, Iowa should continue opening new four-lane segments through the decade.<\/p>\n<p><em>This is the 1,000th post on the Iowa Highway Ends (etc.) blog.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>October 19, 2002: View from D Avenue in Grundy County during construction of a 27-mile four-lane segment of US 20. The freeway opened ten months later. It&#8217;s time for the five-year update map to the timeline of Iowa&#8217;s four-lane highways, &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2013\/12\/for-the-second-time-since-1956-iowa-added-no-new-four-lane-roads\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-highway-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4348","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=4348"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12092,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4348\/revisions\/12092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}