May 19

99-year-old Orange School closes

Posted on Sunday, May 19, 2013, at 9:28 AM by Jeff

When the Orange Township school at the intersection of Orange Road and Kimball Avenue was built, it was for a rural Black Hawk County population. Decades later, it was incorporated into the Waterloo school district and the area became part of the city of Waterloo although the surrounding area retains its rural character.

It closes at the end of the school year.

KWWL.com

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May 18

Analysis of the 2014 five-year plan

Posted on Saturday, May 18, 2013, at 3:58 PM by Jeff

There are some interesting takeaways in the draft five-year plan released by the Transportation Commission this week. The major interstate projects in Council Bluffs and Sioux City continue throughout the plan, although money has been shifted in some years (bridges at I-29/80/480 are now slated for 2018). Technically, these are fiscal years, so it’s possible but not likely that some things may happen six months earlier than you think. Because it’s a long list, I’ve split the entry and there is more after the jump.

  • New US 34 over the Missouri River must open this year, because it’s off the plan, and repaving of both the old route west of I-29 and IA 370 are on it.
  • On the other hand, the state starts contributing to IA 175 bridge maintenance in 2015.
  • Dubuque’s Southwest Arterial is now included, with grading/paving scheduled for three of the five years. The Seippel Road interchange is NOT. To the west, a second Dyersville interchange is on for 2015.
  • IA 100’s “Real Soon Now” date is 2018, with paving between Edgewood and Covington roads in 2016 and to US 30 two years later.
  • I-35 work north and south of I-80 is still on schedule, finishing the six-laning in West Des Moines in 2014, reconstruction of the four-lane north of IA 92 in 2016-17, and beginning work on six-laning in Ankeny in 2018. I-35 in Decatur County, which opened in the early ’70s, will be reconstructed in 2017.
  • Additional four-laning of US 30 is in the works too, with the segment from US 218 to IA 21 paved in 2018 and grading for the Mount Vernon-Lisbon bypass in 2017; presumably paving would be in 2019 following the gap-year pattern. Continue reading →
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May 18

$3.899

Posted on Saturday, May 18, 2013, at 1:58 PM by Jeff

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This picture was taken nine years ago tomorrow in Lime Springs, near the Minnesota border. It was the first time I had ever seen super unleaded at $2 a gallon in Iowa. Then this week, this happened:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Associated Press, Jan. 11:

Forecasters say ample oil supplies and weak U.S. demand will keep a lid on prices. The lows will be lower and the highs won’t be so high compared with a year ago. … AAA forecasts the national average will peak between $3.60 and $3.80 in the spring, then drop to between $3.20 and $3.40 by mid-summer.

CNN, January 30:

Largely thanks to an oil and gas production boom in this country, gasoline prices are expected to top out somewhere between $3.50 a gallon and $3.90 a gallon this year, according to Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service. Last year’s top price was $3.94 a gallon, set in early April.

Average prices for the year are expected to be lower too. Kloza is predicting an average of $3.25 to $3.50 a gallon. That’s considerably lower than last year’s average of $3.60 a gallon — which caused U.S. motorists to spend a record $479 billion at the pump.

And because those are national estimates, here’s Radio Iowa, January 11 (“Report: Gasoline prices in Iowa should be lower in 2013 than 2012”):

“We don’t expect the peak this year to be near $4 as we did last year, actually twice in the Midwest,” Weinholzer says. “We expect the peak to be more in the $3.60 to $3.80 area, but as a whole, the national average will be below last year by about 20-cents on average throughout the year.”

In May 2012, gas hovered in the $3.35-$3.50 range. The price pictured above is the third-highest I have ever seen in Iowa, behind only $3.949 on July 16, 2008 and $3.919 on July 4, 2008.

Sioux City hit $4 a gallon and it’s worse in Minnesota.

This week made it a particularly bad time to try anything related to an increase in Iowa’s gas tax.

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May 17

Lincoln Highway Centennial

Posted on Friday, May 17, 2013, at 2:50 PM by Jeff

America’s Main Street celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. (I’ve seen in places that July 1 is the official date.)

The Lincoln Highway Bridge Festival is this weekend in Tama.

The Rochester Post-Bulletin has a feature about the Lincoln Highway in Iowa, although calling the Tama bridge “lonely” is a bit of license. It might be a little lonelier than it was a few years ago because of the four-lane, I’ll grant that. And it’s only near, not on, 63, but that’s allowable-ish because if you follow 63 down from Rochester to Tama someone will point the way.

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May 16

‘We don’t debate the apostrophe’

Posted on Thursday, May 16, 2013, at 10:44 AM by Jeff

Why isn’t there an apostrophe in the names of Harpers Ferry WV or Harpers Ferry IA? Because the Domestic Names Committee of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names doesn’t like them. (Wall Street Journal)

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May 15

Michigan State scheduling hamstrung by Notre Dame series

Posted on Wednesday, May 15, 2013, at 12:27 PM by Jeff

Imagine if someone covering the Big Ten wrote that headline. Well, someone did, sort of. Just substitute “Iowa” for “Michigan State” and “Iowa State” for “Notre Dame.”

By the way, here’s the list of future noncon games for Michigan State. Some of them may not happen because of the move to nine conference games, but Notre Dame isn’t the only BCS opponent on there.

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May 15

Draft five-year plan is out

Posted on Wednesday, May 15, 2013, at 11:55 AM by Jeff

It’s a big file, because the highway program isn’t separated out like it used to be years ago.

I hope to have analysis this weekend.

Posted in Highway Miscellaneous | Comments Off on Draft five-year plan is out
May 14

An 11-day span

Posted on Tuesday, May 14, 2013, at 2:31 PM by Jeff

May3snow may14temp

Picture with the former:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Addendum: It is really, really WEIRD to be driving and seeing snow on the ground while it is light out at 7 PM.

 

Posted in Iowa Miscellaneous | Comments Off on An 11-day span
May 14

KWWL checks in with Gladbrook’s mayor

Posted on Tuesday, May 14, 2013, at 12:53 AM by Jeff

But in Reinbeck, since that’s where Gladbrook-Reinbeck High School is. Keith Sash used to be a Tama County supervisor.

KWWL.com

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May 13

End/Begin 330 signs gone

Posted on Monday, May 13, 2013, at 11:25 AM by Jeff


December 2002: Eventually, a “North” was added here.

In the past week, the “End 330” sign and “Begin” marker that were at the IA 330/IA 117/US 65 intersection were removed, months after 330 was officially extended to Altoona. However, no other signs at the intersection changed, including the two pairs of “Jct 65/117” on southbound 330 and an “East 117” on northbound 65.

There has been no addition of “End 330” at I-80, though.

In a way, I was right. I thought that nothing would change at the intersection until spring, and last Friday there was still snow on the ground.

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