New lanes on US 30, the future eastbound lanes of the four-lane expressway, opened Oct. 24. The Benton County engineer told the supervisors the change was made that day, Jim Magdefrau reports. The segment in question is from 11th Avenue (one mile east of IA 21) to just west of V44 (the Luzerne corner).
This is necessary for construction of the new westbound lanes, which will be almost but not quite over the existing roadbed. The new lanes will be more level. This is especially evident at the Keystone corner.
This change removes US 30 from the Lincoln Highway roadbed in western Benton County, from V40 (old IA 131, the turn south to Belle Plaine) to just east of US 218. From that point east to half a mile west of the Atkins corner (old IA 279), westbound 30 is built over the Lincoln Highway, and from there to half a mile east of the county line, eastbound 30 covers it.
The news was far from the most important part of the supervisors meeting. A statement from the board following the firing of the entire Benton County Board of Health was part of a much more consequential issue.
(Checking info for this post is how I found out the DOT has switched to winter conditions as default on the 511 map. By the time this post goes live, parts of Iowa may have seen flurries following the drastic temperature drop and hard freeze over the weekend.)
EDIT: Of course I forgot to schedule the post.