Parts of US 20 and US 30 in the eastern Rockies are getting an upgrade not in lanes, but in limits. The Wyoming Department of Transportation is phasing in 70-mph limits on lightly traveled rural highways this spring. Among the segments are 87 miles of US 20/26 west of Casper and the part of US 30 between Laramie and Rawlins that isn’t on I-80. (Historical note: While the latter is the Lincoln Highway corridor, the road of today is a straighter, safer version of what was there in the 1920s.)
Twenty-one months ago, Wyoming raised the speed limit on rural interstates, allowing drivers to legally do 80 on I-80. The closest 80-mph interstates to Iowa are I-29 between North Sioux City and Sioux Falls and I-90 between Sioux Falls and the Minnesota state line.
In Iowa, a proposal to raise the speed limit on two-lane roads to 60 mph didn’t make it anywhere this legislative session in part because it would cost money.