The Iowa DOT’s “Transportation Matters” blog has a post extolling the virtues of a new type of intersection southeast of Fort Dodge. It is a new type of intersection in Iowa, but it’s not the first time one like this has been attempted.
The opening of the “Marker 126” gas station is creating a traffic situation at US 20’s intersection with gravel Poplar Avenue. This is the first gas station to open on four-lane 20 in the entirety of Webster County. Here’s an April article from the Fort Dodge Messenger before its opening was pushed to last month. It’s unfortunate that it wasn’t built at the interchange just to the west, or even just on the other side of 20 where P6D serves as a frontage road for a short distance, but I’m sure there are reasons. (There are no plans to reset the mile markers on 20 across Iowa to match its present alignment, so the name is safe.)
In the “reduced-conflict intersection”, so named because there are fewer places for bad crashes or “conflict points”, cross traffic cannot go straight through or make a left at the intersection. Instead, traffic entering 20 must first go right to go left.
IT’S A REBRANDED J-TURN. This type of intersection was roundly rejected after being proposed nearly a decade ago at two much more prominent intersections, US 65/IA 117/IA 330 in Jasper County and US 30/218 in Benton County. One place it wasn’t rejected was the city of Wapello, which will get a J-turn at the south side of its US 61 bypass after fighting to get access there.
To the west, Sparky’s One Stop at US 20 and IA 4 is being rebuilt after it unfortunately lived up to its name last November.