Yes, very delayed, for reasons.
The Iowa Transportation Commission approved the latest five-year road construction plan in June. Its press release covers the biggest points, but I want to look deeper into some of them, especially the bigger-dollar projects. Years are fiscal. See previous years‘ analyses for further notes. I-80 and Polk County will be covered in separate posts.
- The IA 9 bridge at Lansing is scheduled for 2024, meaning work can begin as soon as late this summer. In fact, a special letting dedicated to this bridge is scheduled for August 1. This bridge will be just north of the present one and slip into the current WI 82 pavement on the other side of the river.
- With the demolition of the I-74 bridges, this will make the US 20 Julien Dubuque Bridge Iowa’s oldest highway-only bridge across the Mississippi. Speaking of, that bridge has rehabilitation scheduled for 2026.
- US 20 between IA 58 and US 63, with pavement dating back to the mid-1980s, will have its pavement replaced in 2026.
- The IA 58 Greenhill Road interchange is programmed for 2028, but there is a double-asterisk indicating it is currently underfunded.
- US 65 south of downtown Mason City will be rebuilt in 2025.
- Four of the five US 30 bridges between Wheatland and Calamus, all from the 1956 realignment of the road, will be replaced. They won’t be replaced at the same time, likely because even if they could be all done in one construction season, a total closure of US 30 in the area would require a giant detour down to I-80 between IA 38 and US 61.
- However, multiple bridges for IA 136 west of US 61 will all be done in 2025, because that road can be closed.
- The US 30/59 bridge over the UPRR on the west side of Denison will be replaced in 2028.
- The US 61 Mediapolis bypass is scheduled for 2025, north of Mediapolis to IA 78 in 2026, and IA 78 to IA 92 in 2026/2028.
- The underfunded US 30 Missouri Valley bypass is scheduled for 2027.
- US 52 between the new Mississippi River bridge and Sabula will be repaved in 2026.
- I-380 will be six-laned from the current end of the six-lane in North Liberty to US 30 in Cedar Rapids in 2024-26 except for the area around the Iowa River and IA 965 crossings and the US 30 interchange itself. This includes conversion of the Cedar Rapids airport exit to a diverging diamond. The north segment is underfunded.
- The US 151 Springville interchange will be done in 2028, a decade and a half after the clamor for it began.
- The I-380 Boyson Road exit will be converted to a diverging diamond in 2025.
- The US 63 Oskaloosa bypass is scheduled for 2027.
- The southbound lanes of US 75 between Hinton and Merrill will be rebuilt in 2025. The northbound lanes are being rebuilt this year. Work on the road in Hinton, where it’s a four-lane street, will be done in 2028.
- A large, staggered US 63 project from US 6 to Hudson, discussed here, starts in 2024 in the southernmost part (including conversion to three lanes in Tama-Toledo), covers Toledo to IA 96 in 2026, and Traer to Hudson in 2027. This is separate from the 2020 project to pave half-shoulders on 63 between Traer and Hudson.
- The old end of IA 225 at IA 146 will be changed in 2024.
- US 30 will be six-laned between the Duff and Dayton avenue exits as part of a Skunk River bridge replacement project in 2025-27. Project materials were put online in April.
- A new US 30 exit at R70, just east of I-35, which requires a relocation of the north-south county road while also building a frontage road between R70 and 590th Avenue to the east, wraps up in 2024, five years after the final public meeting. Then another exit will be built on the west side of Nevada in 2027-28, creating a controlled-access freeway from Ames to Nevada save for what appears to be preservation of the old IA 133 intersection.
- The I-35 SB parking area/scenic overlook south of Story City will be taken out in 2027.
- I-35 at and north of the Cumming interchange has a NB-only “grade and pave” set for 2027, which at the least is a complete reconstruction that widens the shoulders, but could also be paving three lanes. All the work in Warren County north of IA 92, including bridge replacements and future paving in 2026 and 2028, has been preparing for the possibility of six-laning but for now that stops at the Polk/Warren line.
- Between ROW acquisition in 2027 and grade/pave in 2028, the Gordon Drive viaduct replacement in Sioux City is already pegged at $66.4 million and still underfunded.