Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

April 6, 2008: BGS on I-29/80 for IA 192 at the 24th Street Bridge, the first construction related to the massive expansion of I-80 in Council Bluffs that’s still going on today.

IA 192 has an interesting history. The Iowa Highway Commission put the number in Council Bluffs from downtown to Lake Manawa State Park on June 24, 1931, a month after the number 241 had been assigned to the route. (The change was not explained in the archives.) IA 192 remained in that general vicinity for decades, but the exact alignment changed, especially after construction of South Expressway and its extension along 16th Street/old US 75 to I-29.

And then it disappeared. From the end of 1975 until mid-1980, there was no IA 192; it had been turned over to the city. It was reborn among the few cases where the state added jurisdiction in the Great Decommissioning.

The northern part of 192 was turned over to Council Bluffs, along with West Broadway, on May 1, 2016. The Kanesville Boulevard segment of US 6 was renumbered IA 906 — unimaginative, but at least a 9XX. Because that wasn’t signed, IA 192 was essentially a spur from the interstate to downtown Council Bluffs. I wondered if it wouldn’t be turned over because of the viaducts involved.

But on Tuesday, the DOT published IA 192’s obituary. The item says “a portion” but the segment given is all that remained of the route.

The Commission approved the transfer of jurisdiction of a portion of Iowa 192 to the city of Council Bluffs. The transfer segment lies within the corporation limits of Council Bluffs on Iowa 192 from the north limits of the I-29/80 interchange north to Iowa 906/West Kanesville Boulevard and includes the one-way pairs, a total length of 1.97 miles.

If anyone is going through Council Bluffs, let me know when the signs are down.

July 29, 2009: BGS for the left exit of US 65 NB from I-80 EB. The sign was removed when the I-80/US 65 exit was rebuilt and expanded.

After the Great Renumbering of 1969 ended IA 64’s status as a cross-state highway, Marshalltown did not have a continuous number connection to Des Moines. Now, it looked like it did, because of the diagonal, but IA 330 stopped at US 65. However, Marshalltown remained the destination for the US 65 exit on I-80, even though 65 does not go there. It was reasonable because of the diagonal and because it was a logical place to list it. (Marshalltown is signed on I-80 WB as a supplementary destination on IA 146, although in that case it would work better at IA 224, but then Sully or Lake Red Rock would have to get bumped off.)

The IA 330 designation was officially extended to I-80 at the end of 2012, but shortly after, the sign to Marshalltown disappeared as the DOT began a project to add lanes to I-80 and eliminate one of Iowa’s most prominent left exits. When new signs came up, the listing was for Bondurant and Altoona, not Marshalltown, and there was a reason: The exit for eastbound US 6 wasn’t a separate ramp anymore.

But now, the Marshalltown Times-Republican reports, Marshalltown is back on the BGS for this exit. On long vacations, for me, that sign was a way of saying “almost home” (90 minutes to go after multiple days away), so it’s nice to see the change.

[The management is aware there is no webpage yet for IA 330’s south end at Altoona. The appropriate parties have been notified. — Ed.]