Highway Page Updates - 2004 (January-June)
June 30:
- I added three new photos to the Iowa City
section of the Photo Gallery, showing recent signage changes at the I-80/380 interchange
from recent trips there. More photos -- including contributions from Jeff Morrison and Mark
Odor -- will be added to the Des Moines and the Odds 'n' Ends pages after the July 4
holiday. Jeff also pointed out a signage change at US 20 Exit
187.
- Even though the signs are gone, it turns out part of IA 965 has yet to be transferred. The Johnson County
Board of Supervisors has objected to the transfer of four miles of the highway to the city of
Cedar Rapids, because the segment in question includes a one-mile segment in Johnson County,
outside of its city limits. The county is pursuing a fringe area agreement with Cedar Rapids,
and the DOT has agreed to delay the transfer until September 1. A story about this appeared
in today's Iowa City Press-Citizen, and a lengthy explanation of the situation can
be found in the Board of Supervisors' meeting
notes from June 3.
- I added a terminus photo link for the former IA
42 and updated historical information on US 275 and
IA 4 (I).
June 14:
- I added terminus photo links for IA 139,
the former IA 105, and the former
IA 227; I also updated the links on the
IA 346 page, which Jeff Morrison split into two
pages. (His IA 346 west page has photos of the completed Nashua bypass.)
- On a related note, I updated the Avenue of the Saints
north and US 63 in New Hampton exit lists to
reflect the photos on Jeff's terminus photo pages.
June 12:
June 6:
- Mike Gillson has informed me that four additional miles of US
151 in Jones County has opened to four lanes.
- After doing a little research I found an opening date for US
20 between I-35 and US 65: October 7, 1991.
- Ed Breed pointed out a recent Iowa City Press-Citizen article that mentioned the upcoming transfer of what is left
of IA 965 to the city of Cedar Rapids -- more than
one year after the DOT approved the transfer -- despite objections from Johnson County over
Cedar Rapids maintaining a one-mile stretch of road outside of the city limits. The segment
in question runs from 76th Avenue SW in Cedar Rapids to County Road F12 east of Swisher. (Although it is still technically a state highway, I will continue to list it as "decommissioned" because of the removal of signage.)
- I updated the Avenue of the Saints north and
US 218 in Waterloo exit lists to reflect speed limit
changes that Jeff Morrison and an April 16 Waterloo
Courier article pointed out.
- I also made some minor changes to the Scenic and
Historic Routes page to reflect a few street name changes for the Dragoon Trail
in Des Moines.
May 30: After a longer-than-expected hiatus due to computer problems, I'm able
to make updates again. Anyway...
- I updated the terminus photo links for all remaining state
highways that had been on Neil Bratney's site, as they have moved to Jeff Morrison's site.
Those would be IA 9 west, 36, 39,
60, 86,
91, 140,
182, 196,
238, 243,
276, 327,
328, and 403.
- I also made minor updates to the About Me,
About This Site, and Links
pages.
May 2: More terminus photo links have been added or updated: IA 31, 37,
45, 83,
127, 165,
173, 183,
191, 192,
236, 244,
300, 301,
324, 347,
362, 370,
385, 978,
982, and 988.
April 11:
- While I was in southeast Iowa last weekend to check out how the US 34 and Avenue of
the Saints corridors were progressing, I found that all IA
394 signs -- even those in Missouri -- have been taken down (except for one sign in Wayland, MO,
that was a little off the beaten path). IA 27 is
now a standalone route south of the split with US 218.
Photos of Avenue of the Saints construction south of Mount Pleasant and of the new Donnellson bypass
are coming soon.
- I updated the terminus photo links for IA 161,
217, and 285.
- Freeway Junctions updates:
- I removed a few broken links from the title page and some of the listings. I also
changed the wording on some lists that have been asking for confirmations of county road
signage on former state highways. (From now on, lists will only be updated if someone
actually sees a county road marker where a state highway used to be.)
- Minor updates have been made to the US 65/IA 5,
IA 163, I-235,
and I-35 central lists. (The name of the Ankeny road that
I-35 will intersect in a new interchange is really "Corporate Woods Drive,"
instead of NW 66th Avenue, according to a Des Moines Register article from last
Friday.)
April 3:
- I removed the counter from the title page, since the link to the site that kept track
of the number of hits was broken.
- Thanks to more research by Jeff Morrison, I have made updates and/or corrections
to several listings. These include a brand new listing for IA
86 (II) in Burlington, which was short in both its length and life, and was never
marked on any state highway map. (This makes the current IA 86 the fourth incarnation of that
number.) I also found out there was another incarnation of IA
46 between its original and most recent incarnations.
- Jeff is also taking over some of the terminus photo pages that had been on Neil
Bratney's site. These terminus photo links have been updated: IA 15,
41, 48,
115, 145,
184, 239,
240, 242,
333, 351,
352, 384,
and 390. I also added a link to the now-defunct
IA 923.
March 21: The Donnellson bypass is indeed open, as the Keokuk Daily Gate City
reported on February
18. So far the only four-lane segment is that between IA 2 and the split
of US 218 and IA 27;
the rest of it is still two lanes.
March 11: After two weeks in Florida and a busy two weeks at work, I've finally
had time to make some updates.
- The 2004 state transportation map is online at www.iowadotmaps.com,
meaning that the print editions should be out any day now. Several changes were made to
the highway listings:
- The east-west segment of the former IA 115 is
marked as County Road H43.
- The east-west segment of IA 305 appears on
the map as County Road G40, despite what Louisa County told Jeff Morrison last December
(the north-south segment was signed as X43 last November). This is the only former county
road designation in either Louisa or Des Moines counties -- which chose to keep the state
highway numbers -- to appear on the map.
- IA 312 (II), the former US 65 in northeast Polk County, has been turned
over. However, IA 331 (II), the former IA 5 in West Des
Moines, still has a thicker black line.
- IA 410 is now County Road W68.
- The former unsigned IA 424 appears on the map
as County Road W60.
- The northern half of IA 438 (old US 218 in
Mount Pleasant) is still a state highway. (I also added a note to that listing about IA 534,
the temporary designation of the US 34 bypass' completed portion.)
- It looks like the transfer of IA 965 in Cedar
Rapids may not have been completed yet. It still appears as an "unmarked primary" road on the
main map, but the Cedar Rapids city map shows it as a regular city street. (Several readers,
including myself, have noticed that one IA 965 marker -- heading south from what was its most
recent north end -- is still standing.)
- Finally, the US 218/IA
27 bypass of Donnellson is included on the map, although I have not seen or heard anything
about its opening. If anyone knows if it has opened yet, please let me know.
- According to a recent Oskaloosa Herald article, IA
102, IA 371, and IA
432 were all turned over to Mahaska County at the same time -- May 2003.
February 15:
- I added 13 new photos -- some of which were taken during the January 18 roadgeek meet
-- to the Des Moines
section of the Photo Gallery. (I also made a couple of minor updates to the captions in
the special section for last July's
roadgeek meet.)
- Steve Young gave me an explanation on why the US 65
freeway east of Des Moines has no minimum speed limit.
February 8: Two minor Freeway Junctions updates: Jeff Morrison spotted a couple
of sign changes at I-35 exits 182 and 194, while Ed Breed
noticed that there is still no replacement county road marker for the former IA 927 at
I-280 exit 1.
February 1:
- I found out a little more about the former City US 18
in Mason City: it dates back from the late 1950s, and the state highway maps included it as
late as 1975.
- Something I forgot about updating in my last round of updates: Jeff Morrison pointed
out recently that IA 273 was realigned, and
IA 2 (I) did not replace IA
24 (I) right away.
- Jeff Wilcox followed up my last County Roads page
update with another five-letter county sighting: Linn. Both Linn and Jones counties share
County Road X4F.
January 27:
- En route to the January 18 roadgeek meet (photos of which should be up within the next couple
of weeks), Richie Kennedy noticed that County Road G76 (formerly IA 207) still isn't signed
on I-35.
- According to Dave Roden, County Road 99 (the former IA
99) is signed at the US 34 interchange in Burlington but
still isn't posted on the highway itself (nor, for that matter, is the former
IA 79).
- Jeff Wilcox pointed out that Jones County has five county road letters, in a way:
see the end of the County Roads page for more.
- I found out the opening date for the IA 175
bridge across the Missouri River, which was pointed out on misc.transport.road last fall, and
I changed the terminus photo links for the former IA
154 and IA 432.
January 7:
- After the success of the Omaha/Council Bluffs and Topeka meets, we're doing it again!
Great Plains Roadgeek Meet #3 is scheduled for Sunday, January 18, at the North End Diner
in Johnston. I added a note about this to the index page. Let me know if you're interested
in attending (or if you have any questions), so I'll know how many chairs we'll need.
- I made some updates to the Scenic and Historic Routes
page: David Inman informed me that the Iowa Lincoln Highway Association's URL has changed,
while Jeff Morrison gave me an image of the Loess Hills Scenic Byway marker (which I didn't
have before).
January 4:
January 1:
- I added a note about the new URL for this site, www.iowahighways.org.
Although I haven't moved the site (and the old URLs still work), I would highly recommend
changing your links and bookmarks since the iowahighways.org URLs will not change if I ever
decide to move the site again.
- While spending Christmas in eastern Iowa, I noticed that no new four-lane segments of
US 151 between Cedar Rapids and Dubuque had opened since
my last trip, and I have not heard news of the Avenue of the Saints (US
218/IA 27 bypass of Donnellson opening before
the end of 2003. As part of the same trip I updated the I-380 and
US 30 exit lists in the Cedar Rapids area based on recent signage
changes.
- Jeff Morrison found out the new county road numbers for the relocated US
275 and the former IA 370 (east of I-29),
IA 385, and IA
978 in Mills County. He also pointed out that the former IA
108 in Keokuk County is designated as County Road V33.
Past updates:
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© 2004 by Jason Hancock