May 12

Garner-Hayfield, Ventura closer to merging

Posted on Monday, May 12, 2014, at 11:05 AM by Jeff

Story via AP/KCRG. There will be a vote in September, so there’s not much else to report on this at the moment.

Posted in Schools | Comments Off on Garner-Hayfield, Ventura closer to merging
May 11

License Plate Letters — CKC

Posted on Sunday, May 11, 2014, at 10:12 AM by Jeff

But not the CKC of the Chicago-Kansas City expressway.

Posted in License Plates | Comments Off on License Plate Letters — CKC
May 09

A township that needs to be put out of its misery, but probably can’t

Posted on Friday, May 9, 2014, at 9:58 AM by Jeff


This corner is all that’s left of Bloomfield Township in Polk County (2013 map).

Polk County’s Bloomfield Township has been gradually shrinking since it was created.

In 1875, the township had boundaries of the Raccoon River, the section line that is now along Hartford Avenue, the Des Moines River, and the section line corresponding to East 30th Street. It ran 12 miles across the bottom of the county.

Sometime between that year and 1912, possibly in 1890 when the city of Des Moines greatly expanded, townships in the southern half of Polk County were completely redrawn. The city of Des Moines was now in Des Moines and Lee Townships, which together formed a rectangle that at the time encompassed the city. Bloomfield Township was squished down, its northern extent now Watrous Avenue except for a small part west of 63rd Street. Continue reading →

Posted in Geography, Maps | Comments Off on A township that needs to be put out of its misery, but probably can’t
May 08

Old Army Post Road bridge demolition

Posted on Thursday, May 8, 2014, at 4:17 PM by Jeff

When New Army Post Road (very temporarily IA 5) was built south and west of the Des Moines airport, it left behind the street running west from 42nd Street (the old intersection of IA 5/28). The road is still paved, but is lightly traveled, and is now subject of a bridge project.

A press release from Polk County Conservation details what’s going to happen to the Great Western Trail that runs under the Old Army Post Road bridge just east of IA 28. The trail uses an old Chicago and Northwestern Railroad alignment. The trail will have slight detours while the bridge is removed.

But is the bridge going to be replaced? The press release says nothing about that, but I believe it is. There’s a City Council document from last year (PDF) where the city mentions getting a Clean Water Act permit to “place fill within Waters of the United States” for a project “also known as the Army Post Road Bridge Replacement Project.” So I think there is going to be a new bridge. Otherwise, that McKinley-42nd-Old Army Post hook would be a long dead end.

Posted in Construction | Comments Off on Old Army Post Road bridge demolition
May 08

Scott Siepker, call your office

Posted on Thursday, May 8, 2014, at 10:43 AM by Jeff

Omaha World Herald: “Nebraska Nice” is Nebraska’s new tourism brand

Turns out Siepker had the same reaction I did: “This means war.”

Related: “The Good Life” will stay on Nebraska highway signs

Posted in Iowa Miscellaneous | Comments Off on Scott Siepker, call your office
May 07

Beltway interstate more than changing signs

Posted on Wednesday, May 7, 2014, at 11:14 AM by Jeff

Do I need to explain this again, Greater Des Moines Partnership? I wrote a blog post on the Des Moines beltway back in September 2012, too. Talking with DC officials about making it an interstate is less important than getting advice from and working with the state DOT.

I would love for the beltway to become I-435, but there is a major regulation stopping it. It’s mentioned in the linked story — a minimum speed limit. The east side of the beltway doesn’t have one — that’s what those “VEHICLE SPEED UNDER 40 MPH MUST EXIT” signs at the Hubbell Avenue and US 69 exits are for — because it is a vital bridge for bicycle and tractor traffic.

A minimum speed limit would ban bicycles and farm equipment from using the east beltway and, most importantly, its Des Moines River bridge. The next crossings to the west and east are East 14th Street and IA 316. You can see on the official state map for bicyclists that the freeway is open for them.

If the Partnership wants the beltway to become an interstate, it needs to work with the Iowa DOT on one of two things: Either provide an alternate route for low-speed traffic across the Des Moines River (i.e. build another road from Army Post Road to Vandalia Drive with a bridge), or explain to a bunch of angry farmers and bicyclists that they can’t cross the river there anymore and have to go to Runnells. Conduct a study to see how many people the move would actually affect. If it’s not many, then maybe making I-435 won’t be too much of a problem after all. Otherwise, we’ll just have to live with it not being a pretty interstate-colored line on the map.

Posted in Highway Miscellaneous | Comments Off on Beltway interstate more than changing signs
May 06

Informational meeting on US 20 plans

Posted on Tuesday, May 6, 2014, at 12:35 PM by Jeff

The U.S. 20 Corridor Association met in Sac City (which is no longer directly on US 20), and the Fort Dodge Messenger has a report.

The immediate next step in upgrading 20 to four lanes will be between Moville and Correctionville. In the five-year plan, new lanes will be graded and bridges built between Moville and Correctionville this year, but not paved until 2016. The two lanes built after that will not be directly on top of the existing lanes (and section line), but nearby.

The Messenger reports the DOT engineer at the meeting said it would cost $400 million to finish the 44 miles of US 20 in Iowa that are not four lanes.

Posted in Highway Miscellaneous | Comments Off on Informational meeting on US 20 plans
May 05

I-74 project timeline presented

Posted on Monday, May 5, 2014, at 2:22 PM by Jeff

The Iowa DOT’s PIM site has put online the giant posters that were at an informational meeting last week. The file is a VERY large PDF.

Everything through 2020 is laid out, but that includes nothing north of Middle Road or south of the Avenue of the Cities, which would be done some time beyond that.

In the plan, the new northbound/westbound/Iowa-bound side bridge will open around Thanksgiving 2019 and be used for the winter of 2019-20. The other existing bridge would still be active. In the 2020 construction season, the new bridge would serve both directions and the last task of the old, Illinois-bound bridge would be purely as a long on-ramp from downtown Bettendorf across the river. Both new bridges should be open to four lanes of traffic at the end of that year.

Posted in Construction, Highway Miscellaneous | Comments Off on I-74 project timeline presented
May 04

Exira school building fire today

Posted on Sunday, May 4, 2014, at 10:05 AM by Jeff

This school fire is a good one — Exira is planning a controlled burn of its original brick building. The AP article about it notes that it was closed not just because of declining enrollment, but because “The structure was starting to shift.”

Schools burned down with some regularity into the beginning of the 20th century — the core 1917 building in Traer replaced one destroyed in a fire. I don’t know when the last major accidental fire in an Iowa school was. The Cass County Courthouse burned down in 1932, one of two courthouse fires in the 20th century according to this list.

UPDATE: Burn has been delayed.

Posted in Schools | Comments Off on Exira school building fire today
May 01

Des Moines and Diagonal: Polar opposites with similarities

Posted on Thursday, May 1, 2014, at 10:30 AM by Jeff

A quirky fact about Iowa school districts will expire this summer along with the Clearfield school district.

The Des Moines school district by far has the largest student population in the state. Since the closure of Lineville-Clio, Diagonal has been the smallest district with a high school.

In two respects, however, they are peas in a pod. By area, Des Moines is 83.2 square miles, and Diagonal is 82.5. When Clearfield dissolves, Diagonal will get slightly bigger, and no longer be next to Des Moines size-wise. It will still be right after Des Moines in alphabetical order, as it has since Dexfield merged with Stuart-Menlo.

Unfortunately, because Clearfield’s dissolution plan follows all sorts of crazy lines*, I can’t say what the new size of Diagonal or any other involved district will be. (The town will own the closed school building, though, so that’s one piece of good news for Clearfield.)

*Diagonal gets a few blocks in Clearfield by having a line no wider than a road, 170th Street, for three miles. Illinois gerrymanderers would be proud.

Posted in Schools | Comments Off on Des Moines and Diagonal: Polar opposites with similarities