Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

As reported almost three weeks ago by the Cedar Valley Daily Times, DOT engineers favor an interchange over a J-turn for US 30/218 in Benton County. The ramps in the northwest and southeast corners of the intersection-turned-interchange will preserve both Youngville Station and a cemetery.

Back in December, the DOT released another ton of PDFs about four-laning 30 in the rest of Benton County, plus an interchange with IA 21. This four-lane segment ends at Salt Creek just inside Tama County.

A change from previous plans is that now the entire four-lane will be located just to the south of the existing two-lane. It’s much like the plans for US 20 in Woodbury County, where the road that runs precisely along the section line will be obliterated in favor of an all-new roadbed constructed for heavier traffic. On the micro/nit-picking level, the shift means another 12 miles of the original Lincoln Highway route will be removed forever.

These plans have been discussed and refined for years, but construction will not occur until sometime in the 2020s at the earliest.

The long-discussed, still-far-off US 30 bypass of Mount Vernon and Lisbon takes a step forward with a public meeting in Mount Vernon. In a departure from the way most meetings go nowadays, there will be a formal presentation during the period. Documents should be available online after the meeting day.

UPDATE: Story on KCRG.

November 21, 2001: The red lights in the background would be among those eliminated under Cedar Falls’ new plan.

The Waterloo Courier and KWWL both have stories about Cedar Falls’ plans to rebuild University Avenue, which it took over from the Iowa DOT last year. The urban arterial will be converted from six lanes to four, but more importantly many intersections will be converted to roundabouts. That includes the ramps at IA 27/58, which surprises me because I thought those would still be under state control.

In a word, yuck. (And there’s someone who hates them even more than I do.)

This very large PDF draws everything out. Note also that some right-in-right-out (no left turn) places will be added at the expense of eliminating the continual frontage roads.

Meanwhile, the DOT has told the city of Waterloo that it has to put off any potential transfer of jurisdiction of the rest of University because there is no money available. That’s related to uncertainty on the federal level, not the 10-cent increase in Iowa’s gas tax.