Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

A DOT meeting about the US 61 Wapello bypass will be held Wednesday evening, according to a press release from the DOT. At publication time, a PDF was not available. The line on the map shown on the website appears only to go from present 61 south of Wapello to County Road G62, leaving the north half unaccounted for.

The most recent five-year plan has IA 78 to IA 92 included as a single project with multiple entries. The bulk of the grading is to be done in FY27 (2026-27) with paving in FY29-30. That means the bypass and full four-lane US 61 might not be finished until 2031.

Relatedly, via Jason Hancock, via only a Facebook post from the Des Moines County Sheriff’s Department, the Mediapolis bypass opened the day after Labor Day.

The Ames Tribune reports that the eastbound exit and entrance ramps to Dayton Avenue will be closed for seven months next year. Westbound ramps will be closed in 2027.

The closure from April 1 to Nov. 15 is part of an expansion of US 30 to six lanes that also includes replacing the bridges over the Skunk River.

Notably, this will cover most of football season, so there won’t be a tertiary option to get onto eastbound 30. The Duff Avenue exit will start the eastbound detour, via Southeast 16th Street.

I am going back home at least three times in the next month, so of course this is going to happen.

Beginning at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 9, through Friday, Oct.10, weather permitting, crews will close Iowa 8 from U.S. 63 to Iowa 21. While the roadway is closed, you will follow a marked detour route that uses U.S.63, Tama County Road D-65, and Iowa 21.

The closure is about half a mile east of V18. That means that travel to the southeast can be accomplished via IA 8, V18, and E36 via Clutier. Due east is trickier. That’s going to require some gravel. Sherman Street in Dysart (car wash corner, and the intersection where there’s a gravel road heading east) turns into 190th Street heading west, which can be taken to V18 and then north on V18 to IA 8.

A project I was keeping an eye on months ago is finally about to start. On Thursday, IA 330 between IA 14 and US 30 through Albion will close for a month. It’s just a small project south of Albion but big enough that there can’t be any traffic.

The detour goes through Marshalltown which, of course, negates the reason for using IA 330 in the first place. It’s too bad the detour doesn’t go along the pre-1989 route west of Marshalltown, but that would require more turns.