As late guests to the state’s bypass party, Mediapolis and Wapello are the beneficiaries of about 25 years of such work — or, depending on your point of view, the victims.
The “preferred alternative” for a four-lane US 61 from IA 78 to south of IA 92 was released earlier this year. The Louisa County Board of Supervisors, along with other government and public safety groups, are not happy with having one interchange to serve Wapello and all other access roads blocked off, reports the Muscatine Journal. The same thing happened two years ago in Mediapolis.
If US 61 had been four-laned in the late 1990s, there likely would have been at-grade intersections at either end of each bypass with an interchange in the middle like New London, or interchanges at either end skipping the middle like Blue Grass. A preliminary proposal for Mediapolis had two half-interchanges at either end of its much smaller bypass. But according to that 2016 AP story, “Multiple access points from freeways don’t fit with new construction guidelines IDOT follows.”
I can see Wapello’s point. There is no intersection between the proposed interchange and H16 four miles to the south, which is a big gap. The junction with old 61 could be turned into an intersection rather easily; an at-grade intersection with 65th Street nearby would eliminate the need for overpasses.
But I can’t blame the DOT for the cutoffs. As traffic in four-lane corridors increased, and drivers laugh off the speed limit (the Iowa State Patrol has had its budget whacked), accidents at at-grade intersections are numerous. Less than two weeks ago, the state was sued by the family of a motorcyclist killed at the US 18/218 intersection in Floyd, demanding “immediate” construction of an interchange. An EIS was done in 2016 (large PDF), and construction is planned for 2022; I’m not sure it’s physically possible to make it happen faster.