In light of the last time we went through this, a thought:
As an Iowa State fan, I have seen defeat snatched from the jaws of victory in more ways than I care to think about. The game is never over until the clock reads zero.
(Also, it’s not paranoia if they’re really after you.)
The Iowa DOT reports that I-80 is open to five eastbound lanes on the Missouri River bridge. (The press release said Oct. 26, weather permitting; the weather did not permit, and a tweet moved it to the night of Oct. 28-29.) That was part of a project by the Nebraska Department of Transportation. Lane reductions happen almost immediately, though, with the exit to I-29 north and merging east of the 24th Street exit.
The five lanes across the Missouri — which as late as the middle of the last decade were only two — will be appropriate when the Council Bluffs Interstate Project is finished and I-80 splits into three local and three express lanes in each direction. Westbound bridge traffic remains striped for three lanes , making a total of eight. When that changes, I-80 will have its biggest Iowa capacity there instead of Des Moines or Iowa City, both of which have eight-lane portions.
Long-term plans may result in other segments of I-80 in Iowa with five lanes in one direction. I-80 in much of Omaha has a whopping 13 total lanes (seven westbound, six eastbound) for a short segment between US 75 and 42nd Street, 10 for much of the rest in the metro, and as of 2012, six on the entire 41-mile segment between NE 370 and Lincoln.
Good news! Iowa State isn’t at risk of being Kansas’ first conference win since the Jayhawks beat Texas for the first time ever.
The final meeting of the preliminary studies for expanding I-380 to six lanes between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids was last month. Unfortunately, construction is a long ways off. This was just identifying needs and possibilities.
First, nothing will happen until the I-80/380 interchange project is completed, and since that’s barely started, that gives you an idea of how long it will really be. No draft alignments or environmental impact studies have been carried out.
A commuter bus service has started that takes people between downtown Cedar Rapids and downtown Iowa City via Kirkwood, and it sounds like a good idea if those are the only places you’re going, but it’s a $3.50 for an hourlong trip and buses run on the half-hour, according to this KCRG story.
October 20, 2018: …but when the roadgeek turned around from this view on 2nd Avenue South in Fort Dodge, the street had vanished! It was a ghost sign, disembodied from the route it once served!
While doing an online scouting of a route for my return from from the US 20 ceremony, I saw an unfamiliar squiggle in the map. I zoomed in and saw
a roundabout in downtown Fort Dodge. The city is calling it the “Cross-Town Connector” but it disconnected Second Avenue and left a former Fareway and now-closed gas station behind (see above). To the east, there’s another roundabout, at 1st Avenue South and South 12th Street.
The Iowa DOT gave up Business US 169, aka IA 926, formerly the easternmost part of IA 7 and part of US 20’s route through the city, in 2014. And this is what the city did with it — set up a jog after the Karl King Viaduct that takes the business route a block closer to the courthouse via a roundabout. The sign showing the turn from South 8th Street onto 1st Avenue South, instead of 2nd, was moved, but there is no sign on eastbound 1st at 8th, leaving a crucial turn un-marked.
(The modification took place in 2015 but some little birdies travel faster than others.) The Fort Dodge Highway Chronology will have to be re-edited for this.
October 16, 2012: Until the Avenue of the Saints was designated IA 27, IA 38 was the only state highway to have a portion duplexed with an interstate highway — and get a rest area to boot.
The Iowa DOT had a meeting in Durant on Sept. 19 about rebuilding I-80’s west interchange with IA 38. This is the exit just east of the Cedar River, where bridges have already been built to accommodate three lanes in each direction. One option is a parclo ramp like the current configuration, sparing the southwest corner, and the other is a standard diamond, although modern diamonds have slightly curved ramps to allow 90-degree-angle stops.
But the two exit proposals have a surprise inside: The ULTIMATE LANE. The word’s intended connotation is “this can/would happen eventually”, but doesn’t it sound cooler when announced in all caps?
Based on the proposals, there may be an ultimate-er lane. Both drawings have a “4” on the I-80 mainline, indicating four lanes in each direction, around the exit ramps. There’s even a “5” right before each exit and after each entrance, allowing for short exit-only and acceleration-lane distances. That would be the highest number of lanes on a rural interstate in Iowa, but by the time of construction (no earlier than 2023) would not be the most in the state given the Council Bluffs Interstate System project.
Mason City, Iowa, October 26 — Well, [expletive deleted].
For dispassionate coverage of North Tama’s lost 21-0 lead redeemed by a straight-outta-seventh-grade I-formation under-center ground-and-pound touchdown drive, only to be countered by a Mason City Newman two-minute-drill that included a pass interference call on fourth down and a questionable catch on another fourth down, resulting in an overtime that ended when the Redhawks needed two yards but gained 1½ , see the Mason City Globe Gazette story and KIMT video (1:17 mark).
(That after a nice preview article in the Gazette.)
Also, the volleyball team lost Thursday (Times-Republican).
It’s less than a week before Halloween and both the North Tama volleyball and football teams are still playing.
Tonight, the volleyball team, #5 in the state, plays at home against next-door neighbor #11 Gladbrook-Reinbeck. The winner plays Tuesday in Boone against either Ar-We-Va or CAM. Geographically, this is a HUGE regional, a Class 1A box centered around Des Moines spanning four of the state’s five area codes. (NT, the easternmost school in the bracket, is the only one in 319, as the 319/641 boundary cuts right through Tama County.)
Tomorrow night, the football team, although #6 in RPI, has to go on the road. North Tama is the highest at-large team, because of the loss to Hudson, and so must play at a district champion. Although Lynnville-Sully and Edgewood-Colesburg were possibilities, we got paired with…
…Mason City Newman. Again. For the fourth time in a decade, but the first since 2011, the Redhawks’ path to a state title goes through the Knights. The only time NT has come out on top is the 2010 state championship season.
GO REDHAWKS!
Last week was very eventful for the Iowa highway system. In addition to US 20 opening to four lanes, the long-desired, super controversial interchange along the Marshalltown diagonal opened.
That’s a reference to an exit that incorporates US 65, IA 117, IA 330, and County Road F17 into a single place (and means that, even before I got to Correctionville, my re-clinching of the state highway system would have to wait). The interchange, positioned between the former 65/117 and F17 intersections, required eminent domain on the Cleverley farm and that process received extensive news coverage. The DOT selected the interchange after considering a “J-turn” intersection.
