September 7, 2006: This photo looking south clearly shows the offset intersection of IA 9 and IA 76 in Waukon. Until 1968, IA 9 turned right (west).
The intersection at the core of Waukon has always been a bit off. There’s a 60-foot jog where Spring Avenue becomes Allamakee Street at Main Street, the kind of thing that would have been ironed out a LONG time ago if it had been nearly anywhere except where it is. Traffic flow changed when IA 9 was rerouted, so that route now runs north-south through the entire town, and must take the jog at that intersection.
Earlier this month, the DOT reconfigured the stoplight assemblies and turn lanes at that intersection, the Waukon Standard reports. The article goes into detail about those changes, which could have benefited from a diagram (not that a weekly paper has a graphics desk, of course). The kicker is at the end:
As several have stated in regard to adjusting to the new traffic light and intersection changes, “At least we don’t have a round-about!”
I went through Waukon twice, almost exactly three years apart, but haven’t been back since 2009.