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US 52
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Length in Iowa: 173 miles/278 kilometers
Northern terminus: Minnesota state line near Prosper, MN
Southern terminus: Illinois state line (Mississippi River) at Sabula with IA 64
Entrance photos
Counties: Winneshiek, Allamakee, Clayton, Dubuque, Jackson
Cities along route: Decorah, Calmar, Ossian, Castalia, Postville, Luana,
Monona, Garnavillo, Guttenberg, Luxemburg, New Vienna, Dyersville, Farley, Epworth, Peosta, Dubuque, St. Donatus, Bellevue, Sabula
NHS: From the Minnesota state line through Dubuque
Commercial and Industrial Network: From the Minnesota state line to the split with US 61/151 in Dubuque
Freeway segments: 5 miles, bypass of Dubuque between US 20 and US 61/151
Expressway segments:
20 miles, shared with US 20 between Dyersville and Dubuque
2 miles, shared with US 61/151 in Dubuque
Multiplexes:
16 miles with US 18 between Postville and Froelich
20 miles with US 20 between Dyersville and the Southwest Arterial/Seippel Road in Dubuque
2 miles with US 61 and US 151, from Twin Valley Drive to the Southwest Arterial in Dubuque. This is a "wrong-way" concurrency where US 52 runs in the opposite direction of US 61/151. (Before the Southwest Arterial opened in 2020, it shared 3½ miles with US 61/151 between 11th Street and Twin Valley Drive in the same direction. Also, until 1967, US 67 had also followed US 52 from downtown Dubuque to Sabula — the road leading out of Dubuque was marked as US 52/61/67/151, the last time four US highways were signed together in Iowa.)
3½ miles with IA 64, from west of Sabula to the
Illinois state line; they stay together for an additional 28 miles in Illinois.
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History
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Designated: January 31, 1935 (number approved November 20, 1934), to the former US 55 north of Sabula. A 1934 federal aid highway map showed it running with US 20 and IL 80 (now IL 84) between Dubuque and Savanna via Galena, but a Des Moines Register article from December 6, 1934, stated that US 52 was designated along its present route that month.
Paving history: At the time of its designation, the only unpaved segment was between US 61 south of Dubuque and the Mississippi River bridge.
1937: Paved from Bellevue northward to a point between St. Donatus and Bellevue
1940: Paved from the split with US 67 through Sabula to the Mississippi River bridge
1946: Paved from the Dubuque/Jackson county line to a point between St. Donatus and Bellevue
1947: Paved from the split with US 61 to the Dubuque/Jackson county line
1954: Paved from Bellevue to Green Island
1955: Last segment, between Green Island and the split with US 67, was paved
Major alignment changes:
December 20, 1963: Rerouted along a 25-mile segment of US 20 between Dubuque and Dyersville and a 10-mile segment of IA 136 between Dyersville and Luxemburg. The original route was left alone as IA 3 and eventually co-signed as Alternate US 52.
June 16, 1964: Bypass to the west of Decorah opened; the previous route followed College Drive, Water Street, Mechanic Street, and Short Street.
October 11, 1967: Original alignment along IA 3 restored
For alignment changes in Dubuque that are not listed here, see Jeff Morrison's Dubuque Highway Chronology page.
Upgrades:
January 28, 1991: 1½-mile expressway segment from Grandview Avenue to 4th Street in Dubuque opens (with US 61 and US 151), adding to an existing 1½-mile segment south of Grandview that had existed since 1957.
August 19, 1993: Last piece of the Dubuque freeway/expressway, the ½-mile segment from 4th Street to 11th Street, opens (with US 61 and US 151). The two aforementioned segments were removed from US 52's mileage in 2020.
November 17, 2017: The Dale Gardner Veterans Memorial Bridge opens (with IA 64), replacing the old Savanna-Sabula Bridge that dated back to 1932. (Iowa then replaced the "overflow" bridge between the island of Sabula and the causeway, causing closure of the new bridge from February 27 through August 31, 2018.)
August 17, 2020: 5-mile Southwest Arterial opens between US 20 and US 61/151, rerouting US 52 onto IA 136 and US 20 between Luxemburg and Dubuque and removing a 26-mile concurrency with IA 3. The city of Dubuque received IA 32 and the existing US 52/IA 3 within the city limits in a jurisdictional transfer that was approved seven years earlier. (The city streets that US 52 and IA 3 followed before 52's reroute remain part of the NHS as non-primary roads.) After the Dubuque County Board of Supervisors agreed to change rural addresses along the stretch between Luxemburg and Dyersville, the 10-mile overlap with IA 136 was removed in early 2022.
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Notes
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This diagonal highway, which runs from North Dakota to South Carolina,
is signed as a north-south highway in Iowa and Minnesota (but it becomes
an east-west highway in Illinois).
The Great River Road runs along US 52 from Guttenberg to Millville
and again from Dubuque to US 67.
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