Highway Page Updates - 2002 (January-June)

June 29: With a lot of help from Jeff Morrison (who is helping me proofread these pages), some other e-mails from readers, and research from a trip to the State Historical Society of Iowa last week, I have begun a major cleanup of the route listings. I have uploaded newly-revised Interstate and US highway pages that include more alignment changes that we have spotted through maps (within the criteria that I have set on the About page) and fixed some errors in listings that I have overlooked in the past. Most of the Interstate and US highways now have their own pages; see the title page for links. I have added tables of all Interstate and US highways at the top of each respective page for navigational purposes.

I plan to do the same things with all of the state highway listings, and I hope to have this done by the end of next week. During this time there will be some broken links here and there; I will try to fix them whenever I have time.

June 7:

• After giving Jeff Morrison information on all of the 900-series highways that have existed since 1980 (well, those that I could find), he updated his Super Secret Route pages and changed the URLs for them. I've updated all the links.
• While taking photos in Dubuque on Memorial Day weekend, I noticed that the east end of IA 3, was on a different street than its beginning because of one-ways, much like IA 94. I updated both listings.
• IA 420 near Dyersville, like IA 416 in central Dubuque County, was also demoted to a 900-series highway before it was decommissioned.
• I added the Dvorak Memorial Highway to the Scenic and Historic Routes page after finding a 1993 Des Moines Register clipping about its resurrection and route. (I saw signs for it in northeast Iowa last year but was not sure about its routing until now. I even have a photo of a sign and I plan to add it to the Photo Gallery soon.)

June 1:

• I added terminus photo links for IA 23 (III), 27, 934, and Business Loop I-35 in Ames, and revised the links for IA 102, 117, and 330.
• Jeff Morrison gave me the exact dates that the relocated US 30 east of Tama (which also resulted in changes in IA 131 and 212) and the US 20 freeway between Raymond and Independence opened. He also sent some corrections regarding IA 57, 203, 922, and 923.
• I also did some research of my own and found that I was one or two years off on some decommissioning dates in the 1980s and early 1990s (a period when state highway maps were not published annually). After looking at official highway logs during that period, I updated the listings for IA 25, 28, 76, 111, 134 (IV), 164, 217, 236, 272, 363, and 401. I also found the year that the southernmost mile of IA 276 was turned over, and to my surprise, I found that the northernmost four miles of IA 144 were under the jurisdiction of Webster County between 1980 and 1982. Finally, IA 95 (II) and 416 were demoted to 900-series highways before they were decommissioned entirely.
• Where did I find these highway logs, you ask? If you don't already know, check the newly-updated About This Site page to see where I found them.

May 27: New terminus photo links: IA 102, 146, 276 (I also made a minor update to that listing), 327, and 921. I also added a link to Jeff Morrison's commentary on Business US 30 in Marshalltown from the US 30 listing.

May 25:

• Earlier this week I did some research into 900-series highways. Although I do not plan to list any decommissioned 900s for the time being, I did mention some of them in passing under other route listings (such as IA 92 and IA 163 as well as a few of the recycled 900's.) I also added "History" segments under IA 923, 930, and 979.
• I also found that several highways were decommissioned, rerouted, or upgraded one year earlier than I had previously thought. Those include the US 20 freeway east of I-35, US 61/218 north of Keokuk, US 218 south of Waverly, IA 330 and IA 233 in Marshall County, and IA 105. In addition, portions of IA 234 and IA 245 were turned over in 1989 before they disappeared entirely, IA 363 was converted from a spur to a connecting road in 1984, and IA 38 ended at US 61 before 1986.
• I also added a link to Jeff Morrison's writeup on the proposed-but-never-signed IA 402.

May 20:

• I added terminus photo links for IA 45, 305, 371, and old 389 (II).
• Per Jeff Morrison and the 2002 state highway map, IA 344 -- the spur to the state fish hatchery near Mount Ayr -- has also been turned over. He also pointed out a few changes in US 218's alignment in Waterloo prior to the opening of the Rooff Expressway and in the completion dates of the IA 58 expressway in Cedar Falls (which opened in two phases). I also fixed the terminus photo links under that listing since the current and former north ends are on separate pages now.
• I also made some minor changes to the IA 10, 351, 421, 432, and 934 listings.

May 15:

• More new terminus photo links: 98, 109, 214 (there's a little surprise on that photo page...), 215, 249, 252, 282, 406, 410, and 419.
• I also made some minor updates to the Links page.

May 11: A cold and rainy day meant more time for me to update this page.

• Photo Gallery updates: I added two photos apiece to the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City directories. Because of the large number of photos in both directories, I've added a third photo page for Cedar Rapids and split the Iowa City page into two. I have also rescanned and cropped a few photos on the Mason City/Clear Lake page. All of these are accessible from the index page (where I turned the list of individual photo pages into a two-column table).
• AARoads' Interstate terminus gallery is back, and so are the links from the appropriate Interstate highways and Photo Gallery index page. I also added terminus photo links for IA 229 and 299.
• The Woodward State Hospital School is now the Woodward Resource Center, so I updated the IA 141 exit list to reflect the change in signage.

May 8: Many new terminus photo links: IA 2, southern 15, 38, 48, 79, 85, former 118, 144, 145, former 154, 161, 184, 187, 198, 239, 294, 333, former 347, 922, and 939.

April 27: Jeff Morrison pointed out that US 30 was straightened in Tama and Benton counties after 1934, so I updated that listing as well as IA 212 and IA 131. He also posted the IA 212 terminus photos that I sent him, and I added the link. I also updated the IA 160 listing after finding out the years that the highway was extended and straightened.

April 21: I added six new Mount Pleasant-area photos, two photos of Donnellson bypass construction, and an updated photo of the US 218/IA 27 and IA 78 intersection to the Photo Gallery's Avenue of the Saints section. In order to save downloading time, I split the Avenue of the Saints into five separate pages (with roughly 15 photos on each page) and recropped a few photos so there isn't as much sky or other unnecessary space in them. I also added links to each individual page from the Photo Gallery's main page.

April 19:

• I added terminus photo links for IA 221 and for defunct IA 311.
• The County Roads page now has a map showing the boundaries of county road letters and some additional commentary, both courtesy of Jeff Morrison. He also had some corrections to send for IA 160, US 77, and IA 102.
• At Freeway Junctions, I updated the I-35, I-235, and IA 163 lists after I was in the Des Moines area last weekend. I-35 is now field-checked from Osceola northward, and the railroad crossing on IA 163 near Pella is gone now.

April 8: At Freeway Junctions, I added a link to Richie Kennedy's new I-35 in Missouri exit list from my I-35 list and fixed some other broken links as well.

April 7: Updates, updates, updates!

• I pored through the 2001 Iowa Primary Road Sufficiency Log while at the U of I Main Library a couple of weeks ago; they give the distances for each road as of January 1, 2001 (excluding interstate multiplexes, which I added manually, and segments that opened or were decommissioned after January 1). So from there I went through every listing and checked the lengths; I decided to round them to the nearest mile if they're more than 10 miles long and to the nearest tenth-mile if they're less than 10 miles long. I also added the "secret" state highways that appeared in the log -- IA 162, 231, 263 (the segment of old US 20 in Grundy County that was the center of a jurisdiction transfer controversy earlier this year), 289, 337, and 421 -- while deleting a couple of the 900-series highways that have dropped before (I did keep 930, though, even though it's slightly under the 2-mile minimum. And Jeff Morrison now has a complete list of the 900 series and other secret highways at his site.)
• Then the 2002 state highway map came out last week. It shows that IA 122 east of Nora Springs was turned over, IA 186 in Union County is no more, and secret highways 337, 431, and 971 are no longer maintained by the state.
• I also thoroughly redid the "multiplexes" sections for each listing. I dropped my minimum length criterion for listing multiplexes from three miles down to one mile and also dropped the restriction of not listing state highway multiplexes on US highway listings. I updated the About This Site page to reflect this change.
• Per Jeff Morrison, US 6 wasn't paired with I-80 between exits #76 and #100 (and IA 925 wasn't created) until 1980. Also, per Neil Bratney, the southern end of old 236 was US 71 (not 75), and for some reason, I had IA 335's termini listed under 338; that was fixed.
• I also added terminus photo links for IA 258 and 930 and corrected the links to Steve Riner's Minnesota pages for all highways that go into that state.

March 30: A few more corrections:

• IA 72 was extended through Dows to I-35 in 1980 before it was decommissioned.
• IA 161 is not a spur, but rather a loop through Dedham with both ends at IA 141.
• As pointed out by Kyle Johnson, IA 191 ends at IA 37, not 137. He also mentioned that for a short time after the US 65 bypass opened, US 6 was routed along 65 and I-80 instead of Hubbell Avenue.
• IA 215 turns eastward for its last few blocks in Union.
• IA 281 was cut off at the Waterloo city limits in 1983, and then it went due southward from Dunkerton to US 20 between 1984 and 1988 before most of its original route was restored.

March 22:

• The I-235 reconstruction project has begun. I updated the route listing and added a note to the exit list.
• Some updates and corrections, mostly pointed out by Jeff Morrison:
• The east end of IA 2 (I) was cut off at Grandview in 1926; it was extended northeastward along US 61 to Muscatine around 1932.
• IA 7 (I) was originally the River-to-River Road, not the Great White Way.
• IA 90 (II) did not have its east end at Madrid, but rather the former IA 59 south of Hudson, the point where IA 175 ends now. (Matt Kono added that I also had the north and south ends of IA 88 (I) reversed; they're fixed now.)
• IA 143 was extended northward from Marcus in the late 1930s, although we couldn't determine an exact year (as of right now).
• IA 157 becomes County Road A23 after leaving Lime Springs, not T23.
• IA 192's northern terminus is I-29 exit 56, not 57.
• IA 416 was demoted to a 900-series highway in 1980 before finally being turned over in 1995.
• An update from my end after receiving a 1923 map from an eBay trader: the original east end of IA 10 was McGregor, not Strawberry Point.
• According to Nick Wilwert, part of Business US 71 in Storm Lake is unsigned IA 914 (which, at less than a mile long, is too short for my 900-series page).

March 15: Jeff Morrison got access to some pre-World War II road maps and sent some corrections my way:

• IA 150 (II) was extended southward to Panora before it was replaced, and IA 271 (II) was formerly a spur from Panora northward into Yale before it was reduced to a short east-west spur.
• IA 297 (I) was a former spur from Alexander southward to present-day IA 3 that was replaced by IA 107. The present 297 was designated around 1940 and extended southward from Raymond to Gilbertville in the late 1940s.
• IA 354 was not a spur to Bristow, a la IA 326, but rather a spur from Mallard to present-day IA 4.
• A couple of corrections from my end: former IA 399: it was a spur from IA 74 (II), as it was decommissioned before it became IA 94, and the local road that replaced it was not present-day County Road E36; 399 went straight into the center of Palo while E36 bypasses it to the north. IA 106 was partially replaced by County Road B35 and local city streets, and IA 187 used to serve the west entrance to Backbone State Park, not the south (I discovered that while taking photos of its current and former termini for Jeff's site).

March 9:

• More new terminus photo links (these are all on Neil Bratney's site): IA 31, 37, 44, 127, 300, 301, 362, and 982. (He also pointed out I had the termini of IA 300, 362, and 982 wrong; I fixed them.) I also added links to Jeff Morrison's pages from IA 281 and 297, and I fixed the links for IA 21 and IA 152.
• I also fixed the IA 70 listing to show that there had been no direct connection with IA 92 in Columbus Junction before an east bypass of that city opened in 1995.

March 8:

• I fixed the terminus photo links for IA 149 and 394, and added new links from 210, 224, and 286.
• After Kyle Johnson brought this to my attention in a e-mail, I looked at some old maps that I have and noticed that the realigned segment of US 34 in Monroe and Wapello counties began east of the junction with IA 68. I also noted that the four-lane segment of US 34 through Ottumwa dates back from sometime in the mid-1960s.
• I also added links to the Road Map Collectors Association (for those looking for old maps) and Neil Bratney's new page of old Iowa and Nebraska road maps to the links page.

February 27: Good news and bad news for US 20 in Hardin and Grundy counties. Good news: the dispute between the state and Grundy County over old US 20 has been settled, and contracts for paving of the new freeway segment have been awarded. Bad news: the segment is now scheduled to open in late 2003, one year later than previously projected. (Coverage: today's Des Moines Register)

February 25: I added terminus photo links to these listings: IA 25, 28, 82, 94, 100, old 101, 199, 200, 201, 279, 283, 287, 363, 920, and 945. I also updated the IA 923 listing to note that another former US 218 segment near Ainsworth is also part of the route.

February 23:

• I have decided to delete most of my remaining personal pages on this site since I haven't updated most of them lately and I wanted to keep my focus on the highway pages. I did keep the About Me page, thoroughly revised it, and moved it to the main directory.
• US 34 between Albia and Ottumwa was realigned in the late 1950s; Neil Bratney has a new page with photos of the old alignment, most of which is now County Road H35. I added a link to that page from the route listing as well. I also added a link to iowaroadsigns.com -- which explains IaDOT's policies on billboards, freeway signs, distance signs, and blue logo signs -- from the Links page.

February 20: I updated the terminus photo links for IA 163 and added new links for IA 207, 242, 244, 370, 385, 925, 978, and 988.

February 9:

• New terminus photo links: IA 13, 131, 141, 160, old 234, old 245 (II), 415, and 931 are on Jeff Morrison's page, and IA 23, 41, 49, 68, 77, 78, 83, 92, 97, 115, 137, 148, 149, 152, 165, 183, 191, and 192 are currently on Neil Bratney's page. I also corrected IA 49's listing after a closer look at the map; its southern terminus is at IA 2 in Bedford, not IA 148.
• Nick Wilwert confirmed that Business US 71 does exist through Storm Lake.

January 27: AARoads' Interstate Terminus Gallery has been taken offline for site restructuring. I removed the links, but I will put them back up when the site returns.

January 22: A couple more corrections:

• Jeff Morrison pointed out that the western terminus of IA 141 is at I-29 exit #127 instead of #177; coincidentally, IA 141's eastern terminus, at I-35/80, is also at exit #127!
• For some reason, I had IA 201 ending in Keystone (like IA 200 does) instead of Norway. It's fixed now.

January 18: I updated a few links on the main Links page and the About page, most notably the links to the misc.transport.road FAQ.

January 15: More research from Jeff Morrison:

• IA 21 did not replace IA 108 as I had previously mentioned.
• Unsigned IA 930 lasted longer in Marshall County than it did in Story County, and he also mentions that Business US 30 in Marshalltown is officially IA 976; that designation appears on IaDOT's Marshall County map.
• University Avenue between IA 58/27 in Cedar Falls and US 63 in Waterloo is officially designated as IA 934.
• Portions of old IA 104 (II), IA 152 (I), and IA 369 (II) in the cities that they used to end in are still maintained by the state as 900-series highways that are less than two miles long. I also noted that the southernmost half-mile of IA 88 (II) through Fort Madison is unsigned IA 944; that highway appears in the Fort Madison inset of Seeger's map of Burlington.
• He also pointed out that what might be the three shortest state-maintained highways are in the 900 series. They're obviously shorter than two miles long, which is why they don't have their own listings, so I mentioned them in the explanation notes on the 900-series highways page.
• A few former segments of IA 163 and US 218 that were recently bypassed were designated with numbers that were not in the 900 series. Although IA 335 (II) in Otley, IA 374 (II) through Monroe, and IA 392 (II) through Prairie City were turned over to local jurisdictions a year after IA 163 bypassed those segments, I added listings for each highway. A former segment of US 218 in Henry County still exists as IA 424; meanwhile, Business US 218 in Waverly is officially designated as IA 116 south of IA 3, and IA 431 north of there. (All this info came from the PDF-format state highway map, which only shows state-maintained highways, that is available on IaDOT's website.)
• Also, per his request (and to save disk space and downloading time), I cropped the unnecessary portions from the Des Moines photos that he sent me earlier this month.

January 11: The new US 20 freeway segment in Grundy County may have hit a snag -- unless the county agrees to take the old US 20 segment from IA 14 eastward through Dike, the state won't proceed with paving the freeway segment. This column by John Carlson in today's Des Moines Register has more details on this situation. (Thanks to Jeff Morrison for the heads-up and the article link.)

January 6: Updates to the Photo Gallery:

• I added seven photos of the new Mount Pleasant bypass to the third Avenue of the Saints photo page as well as one photo that I moved from the third Odds 'n' Ends page.
• According to Jeff Morrison, the "fork" sign where I-35 split from westbound I-80 was recently replaced; he sent me a photo of the new sign as well as one featuring two more button-copy signs at the I-80/35/235 west interchange. Those photos were added to the second Des Moines photo page.
• I also added a photo to the Iowa City page, and even though I didn't add any photos to the Quad Cities page, I updated a couple of captions on that page for signs that had changed since the photos were taken.

Past updates:

• 2001
• 2000

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