Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

June 20, 2017: This intersection on the south side of Nevada will not be closed in 2023 in favor of an overpass between here and the S14 intersection in the deep background. UPDATE/CORRECTION 6/25/21: Current plans leave the intersection intact at the bridge’s completion.

Here is the first part of a list of major projects or interesting things I saw in the draft five-year construction plan, released after the Iowa Transportation Commission’s May meeting. The highway stuff begins about halfway through the PDF.

Not mentioned below are the continuation of the I-80/380 interchange replacement, I-29/480 interchange, or future redesign (again) of the northeast mixmaster in Des Moines.

• The draft plan does not include mileage for any project.
• The I-74 bridge is to be completed this calendar year with demolition of the old ones next year. The final piece of the arch of the Illinois-bound bridge was set May 5; here’s a video from the Quad-City Times.
• US 30:
  • Four-lane in Tama County plus the IA 21 interchange in 2022, i.e. hopefully finished by midsummer next year.
  • Four-lane in Benton County in 2022-23.
  • New exit at R70, 2 miles east of I-35, in 2023-24, slightly extending the controlled-access portion. The Nevada Journal wrote about it last March. This and the next item have been discussed for nearly a decade; see these blog posts from 2015 and 2017.
  • A new bridge, but not a new exit, between S14 and 6th Street (former IA 133) in Nevada in 2023. This will close both intersections of those roads with 30. (UPDATE: 6th Street will stay open.)  The Nevada City Council endorsed last year (story: Ames Tribune) after un-endorsing it in 2015. It’s based on promise/hope of a future exit at Airport Road, which is not in the program yet.
  • Missouri Valley bypass programmed for bridge and grading later, with paving likely in 2027.
• I-80:
  • Six-laning from Alice’s Road Grand Prairie Parkway to Jordan Creek Parkway, 2023-25
  • Six-laning from where it currently ends just west of Herbert Hoover Highway to West Branch, through 2025. The first part of that started this spring with closure of a ramp at the HHH exit.
  • Around the IA 38 exit, including redoing it with space for the ULTIMATE LANE, in 2023
  • New Raccoon River bridges near the De Soto exit in 2022/2024. The PDF shows “bridge for 6 pave for 4”.
  • Continued replacement of the North Skunk River bridges, which is also “bridge for 6 pave for 4”, in 2022.
  • The IA 146 exit, also a “bridge for 6 pave for 4”, in 2022; the original eastbound lanes are in the space for the new median
  • Paving, with bridge widening, between University and Douglas avenues in 2025-26. This is through the Living History Farms area. I figure this is to turn I-35/80 from three through lanes with a dedicated exit lane to four through lanes with a dedicated exit lane.
  • “Improvement”, which I suspect means replacement, of the westbound Underwood rest area in 2025
  • “Improvement” of the eastbound Iowa County rest area, which used to be a welcome center in the middle of the state, in 2024
  • Any chance future five-year plans could specify “6-lane” or “prepare/bridge for 6 pave for 4”? Just asking.

I-80’s 1st Avenue exit in Coralville, scheduled for replacement in 2023, will be Johnson County’s first diverging diamond. That will be a year after I-380 at Tower Terrace Road becomes the first such exit in eastern Iowa.

The interesting thing about this plan (link to lots of renderings here) is incorporation of a trail crossing. The trail, on the east side of the interchange, will have underpasses at three places:

• Under a new connection between the Iowa River Landing area and 1st Avenue, approximately where the eastbound ramps meet 1st today. This will be a new intersection between the ramps (closer to I-80) and the present stoplight at 9th Street. The future street connection has a paving stub west of Von Maur/north of the UIHC clinic parking ramp already.
• Under the eastbound onramp to I-80, after which the trail takes a huge bend eastward for a pedestrian bridge and comes back.
• Under all four lanes of 1st Avenue at the westbound ramps, which means the tunnel is even longer than it would be to simply go under four lanes. The tunnel goes from the southeast corner of the westbound ramp junction to the northwest corner near the Hampton Inn.

The exit will serve the arena whose naming rights deal hasn’t been disclosed because of Coralville’s assertion that actually a nonprofit that the city created made the deal, not the city, and therefore it’s not public record.

An e-mail from a mailing list and this DOT press release bring good news for western Iowa: The I-80 dual, divided freeway separation will be completed this week.

There will be some closures to get lane shifts complete, but starting Thursday, a traveler getting on I-80 at 13th Street in Omaha can go straight through to Madison Avenue in Council Bluffs with only the I-29 exits in between. The I-29/local/outer lanes have the South Expressway and South 24th Street exits. The entrance ramp at South Expressway will have its own bridge and lanes to southbound I-29 and eastbound I-80.

Technically, if you’re really hard-core about it, this means you can travel I-80 without traveling I-29, and travel I-29 without traveling I-80.

The wrap-up of this part of the Council Bluffs Interstate System project comes just as the next part starts. Construction on the I-29/I-480 interchange, which will include a complete rebuild and changes to the Nebraska Avenue, Avenue G, and 35th Street ramps, began in April (KETV). At the same time, the I-480 Missouri River bridge is undergoing major rehab on the Nebraska side that will last 2½ years (WOWT).

The DOT has released final plans for four-laning US 61 from the north end of the future Mediapolis bypass to just north of IA 78, including a new interchange with a slightly extended IA 78. Typically, there would be a scheduled meeting, but it’s been replaced with a 12-minute video instead. (NOTE: There’s a typo in the filenames; they say “US6” instead of “US61”.)

As the project statement affirms — or perhaps admits — this is the continuation of a process that got under way in the fall of 1996! The idea of four-laning all of 61 in Iowa goes back 30 years before that! It’s one of the projects killed in late 2001 when the DOT said it was expecting a $300 million funding shortfall. It’s also one of the projects currently on the schedule only because of the increase in the state gas tax a while back.

US 61 between Burlington and Grandview has four chunks, and based on last year’s five-year plan and some media coverage, here’s what I know or think:

• Burlington to south of Mediapolis: To be done by the end of this year. Parts of 61 are being left behind.
• Mediapolis bypass: Paving currently scheduled for 2024.
• North of Mediapolis to IA 78: This is the subject of this spring’s meeting. With grading scheduled for 2024, paving wouldn’t happen until 2026. Nearly all of present 61 will be left behind.
• IA 78 to IA 92, including Wapello bypass: This is the last link in four-lane 61 in southern Iowa and the most environmentally sensitive part, through the Iowa River valley. My estimate is that Thanksgiving 2028 is optimistic and Thanksgiving 2030 more realistic, which would be 16 years after a commitment was made to bypassing Wapello and not five-laning the current road. How traffic would then get between the four-lane and Wapello has been a tug-of-war. An agreement has probably been reached, but I think you’ll understand my hesitation on that point.