Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

At the fall 2021 meeting of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Iowa submitted an application to change the route of Business US 151 in Cascade. The application starts on page 4 in this large PDF.

The change makes the business route begin and end on interchanges with US 151, and removes it entirely from Jones County. It also makes the “northbound” business route start by heading southeast on IA 136. The route becomes much shorter, but more than half of the eliminated segment is rural.

The existing BGSs on northbound US 151 — or at least those up in August — are large enough that “Business 151” signage could be pasted on without replacing the sign. That would be really convenient. However, I’ve been told that business route signage is local jurisdictions’ responsibility, so I don’t know what the protocol is here.

At the same meeting, AASHTO gave conditional approval to a new two-digit interstate, but it’s entirely within one state and not entirely built. Interstate 42 will run in the US 70 corridor in eastern North Carolina, from I-40 southeast of Raleigh to Morehead City on the Atlantic coast. Technically it’s “north” of I-40, because I-40 east of Raleigh practically runs north-south to Wilmington. There are many crimes against interstate numbering that AASHTO is letting North Carolina get away with (among them: I-73 is never going to be a thing, stop trying to make it a thing), but this isn’t one of them.

When the Mount Vernon-Lisbon US 30 bypass opened without any signs indicating a Business 30, I figured the DOT had simply decided against one. Either I was wrong or someone’s mind changed.

The spring 2020 meeting of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials included an application from Iowa for a Business 30 in Linn County. The business route uses IA 1, old 30 (temporarily designated IA 830), and a new road angling southeastward to the Lisbon exit. As of the end of 2021, there were no signs. Either new BGSs have to be erected or, more economically, “Business 30” standalone signs put up by them.

Lack of an official Business 30 designation didn’t stop either town from marking the old road that way on street signs, including this one where it intersects the Lincoln Highway east of Lisbon and is not on the applied-for business route, and this one at the west end of the bypassed alignment also not on the applied-for business route.

I am unsure about signage status for the Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway in the area. One option is to use Adams Avenue (which does not intersect the bypass), a newly built road named Old Lincoln Highway, and a bit of now-paved Charles Avenue. That makes more sense than doubling back to the interchange, and the name of the new road is likely a clue, but that route involves a left turn off 30 for westbound Lincoln Highway travelers.

The application to AASHTO also included a “cleanup” of the newly truncated I-680 route to remove its overlap with I-29 and officially make the Crescent interchange 680’s east end.

The draft 2023-27 five-year construction plan includes this entry in Linn County: “IA 1 interchange in Mount Vernon … Traffic Signs” for $110,000. Might this put Business 30 on BGSs? We’ll have to wait and see.