On the Transportation Commission agenda for tomorrow is this line item: Transfer of Jurisdiction – Portion of Virginia Street from Sioux City to Iowa DOT.
This has to refer to the newly built Virginia Street in the area of the I-29 reconstruction project. Google Maps (but not the satellite view, so it happened last year) shows Virginia coming down to end in a half-diverging-diamond interchange. The interchange itself spans a long area with what I’ll call “frontage ramps” much like the volleyball interchange with IA 100 and Blairs Ferry Road in Cedar Rapids. A traveler leaving downtown on Pierce Street wanting to get to southbound I-29 will not merge immediately, but pass by Virginia Street and Floyd Boulevard before finally getting on the mainline near the Floyd River.
Is the transfer for just the part under the interstate, or is it the 1/10 of a mile from the southbound ramps to Gordon Street? If the former, it could open the door to an official reroute of Business US 20, which currently continues west on Gordon Drive until it runs out of road and becomes an ramp to the US 77 interchange. In fact, for eastbound Business 20 to be a continuous route, it now has to exit at Virginia Street. However, Gordon Drive itself still exists west of there, and under state jurisdiction as an unsigned extension of IA 12.
If they give it a number, I hope it’s not a weird one. Just stick to the 900s, please.