Site updates

Highway Page Updates — 2017

This is a list of updates to all of my highway pages so everyone can see what is new or what has changed since they last visited. The most recent updates are listed first.

December 2:

Per the traffic cameras at 511ia.org, the new six-mile expressway segment for US 61/IA 92 segment in northern Louisa County opened yesterday.
I haven't had many chances to update listings with news on the Iowa DOT's latest five-year plan, but did confirm that an interchange with US 30 and US 218 will be built in 2018, while the four-lane segment west of there into Tama County is programmed for paving in 2022.

November 26:

The Dale Gardner Veterans Memorial Bridge (US 52/IA 64) between Savanna, IL, and Sabula opened on November 17 (news coverage: Clinton Herald; Carroll County (IL) Mirror-Democrat). Richard Stimmel provided some photos from the day after the bridge opened to the Mid-America Roads group on Facebook.
Nick Oswald has let me know that Highway 965 in North Liberty now has a street name, "Ranshaw Way". (News coverage: The Gazette, August 28)
After doing some research via Newspapers.com, I found some additional opening/realignment dates for highways in Davenport:
- The relocated US 6 opened November 29, 1936, but it didn't get the Kimberly Road name until its December 14 dedication.
- Signing for IA 150, at least in Scott County, was completed on September 4, 1941, so I will recognize that as the date of designation and decommissioning of IA 74 (I). The Davenport Democrat and Leader of September 2 even mentioned that the highway was going to be marked with US 150 shields — only to have the same paper show a photo of an IA 150 shield two days later!
- Amid recent stories that the city of Davenport is planning to do away with the one-way pair along 3rd and 4th Streets, I found that the one-way pair took effect on April 20, 1954, but the routing of US 61, US 67, and IA 150 along the one-ways was short-lived as the relocated River Drive opened seven months later (even though this was the alignment shown on the back of the 1955 state highway map).
Meanwhile, in Des Moines, I am going to use the date from the legal description (March 18, 1941) as the date IA 163 was relocated onto University east of the junction with East 14th Street. The railroad viaduct east of what is now I-235 was completed in September 1942 and newspapers from that era referred to that segment of University as part of IA 163.
Exit list updates:

I-29 south and I-80 west: As of the last weekend in October, signage at Exit 3 now lists the South Expressway while omitting IA 192, even though the remaining segment is still signed for now. In addition, the left exit that existed at exit 4 is no more.
IA 100 and US 30 Cedar Rapids: Signage plans for the last segment of IA 100 and the future interchange with US 30 have been posted to the Iowa DOT's November 2017 project lettings page (search for project number NHSX-100-1(47)--3H-57) and are now on these exit lists as interchanges under construction.

October 6:

While I haven't had a lot of time to do research in recent months due to a busy personal life, a search of the Quad-City Times online archive (which requires a subscription) revealed that the relocated US 67 between Bettendorf and Le Claire opened June 30, 1959.
On the subject of the Quad Cities, groundbreaking for the new I-74 bridge occurred in Bettendorf on June 26 with completion scheduled for 2021.
In addition to the I-74 and US 67 updates, I changed the 1985 map on the Highways of the Quad Cities page to a map as of July 1, 1984 (all other maps are as of January 1 of the listed year), as IA 130 was actually truncated south of I-80 in December of that year per earlier research.
Speaking of bridges, Richard Stimmel let me know that the US 52/IA 64 bridge at Sabula will be known as the Dale Gardner Veterans Memorial Bridge, named for the NASA astronaut who grew up in the area. According to this September 7 article in the Carroll County (IL) News, a Bridge Fest will be held on October 21 with the bridge itself expected to open to traffic sometime in November; the old bridge will be demolished in the spring of 2018.

July 27:

The former segment of US 6 through Council Bluffs that is still under state control (for now) has a designation: IA 906. Dave Darby confirmed this from the Iowa DOT via e-mail on June 20; the designation also appears on OpenStreetMap.
Exit list updates:

US 20 east: Heritage Trail is now signed at Exit 308.
Main Freeway Junctions page: The Nebraska Department of Roads is now the Nebraska Department of Transportation, so I updated the link accordingly.

April 29:

I was in Council Bluffs earlier this month and confirmed that not only has US 6 moved onto I-80, but IA 192 is no longer signed north of Kanesville Boulevard in Council Bluffs. It is still signed along the one-ways downtown and along the South Expressway. Signage was removed from I-29 at Exit 56 so the exit list has been updated as well.
Additional Jeff Morrison research findings:

US 75: According to the Onawa Democrat, the move from I-29 to the former US 73 in Nebraska took effect on December 6, 1984 — one day after the legal description was modified.
IA 14: Per the Marshalltown Times-Republican, paving/realignment between Laurel and Newton was not completed until August 29, 1950.
IA 37 and IA 268: Since the relocated US 59 in Shelby County opened July 12, 1971, I will use that date as the decommissioning date for IA 268 and extension date for IA 37, as the changes likely coincided with the opening of relocated US 59.
IA 85: The entire route was paved in 1955 after all.
IA 141: Per the Mapleton News, the relocated segment from Sloan to Smithland opened June 1, 1961.
IA 143: According to the Des Moines Tribune, the truncation south of IA 3 was pushed back to December 1, 1961, due to the state needing to upgrade the condition of the road.
IA 370: According to the Lincoln (NE) Evening Journal, the toll bridge into Nebraska opened December 17, 1952. The original IA 370 in Dike still appeared on the 1953 map, however, but was gone by 1954.

Other exit list updates:

I-29 south: County Roads L35 (exit 32) and H10 (exit 42) are now signed along I-29.
I-680: County Road G37 is now signed along eastbound I-680 at the junction with I-29, but still not on southbound I-29.

April 8: Additional research findings from Jeff Morrison:

US 30 and IA 330: The original US 30 cutoff of Marshalltown opened in December 1947, and follow-up articles in the Marshalltown Times-Republican reported that the old segment west of IA 14 would get a new number in January — the IA 330 number was first mentioned in the T-R on February 9, 1948. Since the original IA 330 became IA 393 on January 20, 1948, per the legal description for 393, I have recognized January 20 as the date for the second IA 330's designation as well. (Side note: There are two IA 330's on the 1948 state highway map.)
US 169 and IA 92: Per the Winterset Madisonian, the new segment of US 169 south of Winterset opened in December 1976, but their mutual bypass around the city did not open until June 3, 1977.
IA 7 (I) originally followed what is now NE 72nd Street, NE 70th Avenue, and NE 112th Street between Altoona and Mitchellville; it was moved onto NE 46th Avenue and NE 116th Street in 1921.
IA 70 (I) was decommissioned on November 14, 1966, per an article in the Winterset Madisonian.
IA 141 and IA 89 (II): IA 141 was rerouted away from Woodward in 1948, leading to a slight extension of IA 89 that would not be paved until 1950.
IA 185: Per an article in the Grundy County Register, the highway was decommissioned on November 1, 1978, despite appearing on the 1979 map.
IA 191: Per the legal description, the redundant concurrency between Earling and US 59 was dropped as part of the Great Renumbering of January 1, 1969.
IA 202 (I) was decommissioned effective July 1, 1967, per the Cedar Valley Daily Times of Vinton.
IA 333: The designation of IA 999 originally was assigned to an east-west segment that IA 333 replaced in March 1969, per the Clarinda Herald-Journal; upon relocation, the 999 designation was moved to the College Springs stub.
IA 361 was decommissioned on March 28, 1962, per the Bayard News.

March 26:

Jeff Morrison did some research recently and has passed along some updates:

US 20 and IA 928: According to the legal descriptions, the IA 928 designation was born on May 12, 1981, when the IA 520 designation for the US 20 freeway was retired. Per the IA 928 legal description, its east end was at the junction with US 20 north of Williams, where it remained until its 2003 decommissioning. This created a duplication of I-35 and US 20 between exits #142 and #147 that lasted until the relocated US 20 segment between I-35 and US 65 opened in 1991, even though state transportation maps during this era did not show any changes in US 20's routing.
IA 102 (II): A closer look at the legal description shows that the original east end was the west city limits of New Sharon; the city did not take over its piece until July 22, 1986.
IA 208 (II): Its south end was just before the Missouri border, not at it.
IA 212: The front page of the Belle Plaine Union on February 4, 1981, showed that the IA 21/212 concurrency still existed through Belle Plaine at the beginning of 1981. Also, a story on April 8 mentioned "the short segment of Highway 212 west of Belle Plaine" as one of several highways where Benton County and the Iowa DOT were unable to reach a transfer of jurisdication agreement on. Because of that, I have decided to use the date from the legal description (August 4, 1981) as the date that IA 212 was truncated to its current west end.
IA 216 and IA 277: A relocation of what was then IA 60 truncated part of IA 216, while IA 277 likely never went into Centerville based on what the legal descriptions have, despite what appears on maps from that era.
IA 281: The west end was moved from US 63 to the intersection of East 7th & Franklin Streets no later than May 29, 1963, as that was the date the west end was updated in the legal description.
IA 316: Polk, Warren, and Marion counties gave their shares to the DOT in January 1981, not the other way around.
IA 333: In 1970 a short segment between US 59 and the Fremont/Page county line was turned over to Fremont County; this was not covered in the legal description but does appear on maps during this time.
IA 395: Added a legal description link that was previously missing and corrected the street listing (it followed 1st Avenue and 1st Street).
IA 422: Was not replaced by County Road B19, but rather 300th Street.
IA 475: Sioux City took over parts of its successor, IA 970, in 1981 and 1994.
Several other highways made turns into cities before ending, and were replaced by city streets in addition to the county roads that were listed. Those highways were IA 55 (II), IA 225, IA 229, IA 260, IA 284, IA 292, IA 295, IA 304, IA 312, IA 318, IA 319, IA 325, IA 329, IA 337, IA 342, IA 374, and IA 400.

Exit list update: The Grundy County Industrial Park is now signed at US 20 exit 208.

February 27:

Dan Drackley reported that as of January 5, almost all US 6 signs along Broadway and Kanesville Boulevard in Council Bluffs have been removed as the city has taken over its segment to prepare for a major reconstruction of West Broadway. Changes along eastbound I-480 have also been confirmed via this thread on eomahaforums.com as well as a January 2 post to the Iowa DOT's Council Bluffs Interstate reconstruction page on Facebook. US 6 has been re-routed onto I-29 and I-80, splitting from I-80 at Exit 8. (I have not received any word about changes to IA 192, given that the segment along North 16th Street is also supposed to be given to the city.) Given that the Google Street View images dated November 2016 still show US 6 at the east end of I-480, I have (for now) recognized December 2016 as the approximate month of this change on the US 6 route listing. I have also updated the I-29 south, I-80 west, and I-480 exit lists to reflect this even though signing along the new route of US 6 is a work in progress at this point.
Other exit list updates:

I-235: Hoyt Sherman Place is now signed at Exit 7A; Josh Garrett first brought this to my attention.
IA 5: The Iowa Center for Higher Education, which physically replaced the AIB College of Business, has also taken its place on signage at Exit 97.

January 31:

Jeff Morrison confirmed that the IA 3 bypass of Cherokee, which also created IA 977, opened in November 1961 (per the Cherokee Daily Times, November 20, 1961). Jeff also confirmed that the Great Renumbering was approved by the Highway Commission on March 20, 1968 (per the Cherokee Courier, January 16, 1969); this is noted on the About this Site page.
Exit list updates:

IA 141: There is a new traffic signal at Beaverbrooke Boulevard in Grimes, about a mile north of the interchange with IA 44.
US 151: The Grant Wood Trail is now listed as a destination at the junction with Linn-Aire Drive in Marion.

Past updates:

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