For a variety of reasons, I’ve been going back and forth on US 30 in Benton County the past couple of weeks. This summer, crews have been working on the last part of the four-lane, from the Luzerne corner (V44) to IA 21.<\/p>\n
On the night of Sept. 21, there were message boards warning of “Lane Shift” starting “next week.” When I returned a week later, westbound traffic had moved into the new lanes, which are a couple hundred feet (if that) south of the original lanes. There are only two spots where westbound traffic is not<\/em> two lanes and 65 mph: each end of the previous two-lane segment. The crossovers there are being torn out.<\/p>\n The eastbound lanes, which had been serving as head-to-head traffic, remain with only one lane open and 55 mph. Presumably this has to do with the need to remove the pavement markings and restripe it.<\/p>\n The most notable change between the east half of US 30 in Benton County and today is only noticeable at night. Every intersection with a paved road now only has one streetlight. As Jim Magdefrau reported from the Benton supervisors’ meeting<\/a>, that is because all those intersections are county roads and don’t qualify for more. The former state highways knocked off in the Second Great Decommissioning of 2003 (IA 287<\/a>, IA 201<\/a>, and IA 279<\/a>) all have five streetlights at their intersections. This means, in my opinion, that the intersections are underpowered in lighting, especially the Blairstown\/Van Horne corner (north end of old IA 82<\/a>) which has specially separated left-turn lanes. That one needs at least one more. I think each of the others would be better off with three, one for each direction of 30 and one on the intersecting county road.<\/p>\n Ideally, for an important closed link like this, I’d be able to get a date for “totally open, four lanes in both directions” but we may have to fudge it. (And not even the good fudge, because there’s a month changeover, so it has “nuts”.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For a variety of reasons, I’ve been going back and forth on US 30 in Benton County the past couple of weeks. This summer, crews have been working on the last part of the four-lane, from the Luzerne corner (V44) … Continue reading