Highway Page Updates — 2014

December 28:

• Dan Drackley reports that the former US 34 segment between Plattsmouth, NE, and I-29 is now signed as an extension of County Road L35 (which also incorporates the former US 34 segment between I-29 and Glenwood, and the former US 275 segment from Glenwood northward to Council Bluffs). The highway and I-29 south exit listing have been updated to reflect this; Dan advised that L35 is currently unsigned along I-29, so I put it in parentheses for now.
• Other exit list updates:
• I-29 south:
• As IA 370 has been decommissioned, I have removed it from the exit list. However, per Dan Drackley, its replacement (County Road H10) is currently not signed along I-29 so I put that in parentheses as well.
• In Council Bluffs, there is new signage for the South 24th Street exit that uses I-29's exit number (50) instead of the former I-80 exit number (1A). Also, as far as the I-80 west list is concerned, the eastbound exits for I-29 north and South 24th Street have been combined into one exit. (Due to the ongoing reconstruction, I have left the exit numbers on the I-80 list alone for now.)
• I-29 north: Per Dan Drackley, the weigh stations north of I-680 are permanently closed.
• I-35 south:
• IA 152 has been replaced with County Road R35 (its pre-1980 designation) at Exit 36. However, as of today, IA 152 signs have yet to be removed from the highway itself, so no changes have been made to the highway listing.
• I noted that the southbound parking-only rest area at mile marker 51 closes each year from November to April, due to it being on an incline that often prevents large vehicles from gaining traction to merge back onto I-35 during winter weather.
• While the six-laning of I-35 in West Des Moines is not quite finished yet as of today, northbound Exit 69 reopened on November 26.
• I-80 west and I-80 central: The weigh stations at mile markers 115 (eastbound) and 151 (westbound) now have truck parking, noted with blue secondary signs before the weigh station ramps.
• I-74 Illinois: Per Google Street View, which now has images that were posted after my last trip to the area, I've updated listings for exits 92B, 93, and 95. In addition, I-74 through Peoria is now known as the Ray LaHood Highway after the former Secretary of Transportation.

November 16:

• The first decommissioning of a signed state highway in over a decade was confirmed by Dan Drackley this week as signs along IA 370 are being replaced by its successor, County Road H10, less than a month after the new US 34 bridge opened. (He mentioned that signage along I-29 had yet to change as of this weekend.)
• IA 926 was turned over to the city of Fort Dodge during the Transportation Commission meeting on November 4 (even though the transfer agreement does not include the two Des Moines River bridges, which is noted in the highway listing).
• IA 961, the segment of Business US 61 north of the bridge to Illinois, is no longer a state highway per the DOT's 2014 maps of Fort Madison and Lee County. I removed the IA 961 listing from the 900-series page since it lasted less than three years, but it is mentioned under the Business US 61 listing.
• Upon reviewing the aforementioned map of Fort Madison, I also noticed that the new east end of IA 2 is actually at the west city limits of Fort Madison, about a quarter-mile east of the US 61 interchange. (The "END" sign was posted just east of the junction with County Road X23 as of late August.)

October 23: The new US 34 bridge to Nebraska and 4-mile expressway segment west of I-29 opened yesterday. (News coverage: Omaha World-Herald, KETV, KMA, WOWT.) Per Jeff Morrison, IA 370 remains intact for now. The multiplex with I-29 is gone now, but I have not received word on a new designation for the old US 34 between Plattsmouth and I-29. (If you know what it is, please let me know.)

October 15:

• IA 92 has been rerouted around Muscatine, as the segment between the Norbert Beckey Bridge and the south end of the US 61 bypass has been turned over to the city but remains signed as part of Business US 61. IA 92 now follows the US 61 bypass for its entire length and IA 38 (which is unchanged) between the bypass and the bridge — on top of that, IA 22 now overlaps part of IA 92's new route as well along its existing concurrencies with US 61, Business US 61, and IA 38. Owen McCormick confirmed that the changes occurred during the month of September, although signage is still a work in progress as of last weekend.
• On the subject of the US 61 bypass, it was named the Douglas King Memorial Expressway in 2012 in honor of a Vietnam War soldier from Muscatine. I added this fact, including a link to the Iowa DOT's page explaining this name, to the History section under the opening date of the bypass in 1984.
• Exit list updates:
• The main sign at I-235 Exit 5B now includes the Art Center, while the Community Playhouse joins Salisbury House and Gardens on the secondary sign.
• Groundbreaking ceremonies for the new I-80 interchange at Grand Prairie Parkway on the border of Waukee and West Des Moines were held today. This will be Iowa's first diverging diamond interchange and is set to open in the fall of 2015. I added this to the I-80 west exit list; the exit number of 118 and signage information was confirmed by viewing the construction plans in the Iowa DOT document library.

September 28:

• Wikipedia now has a page with links to AASHTO Special Committee on Route Numbering meeting minutes going all the way back to 1967. These meetings are held by AASHTO twice a year where they review state highway agencies' requests for changes to the Interstate and US highway systems. While many of the Iowa listings are for relocations that are already listed in the main highway listings (the approval dates generally do not coincide with highway opening dates but are usually within a year), I have added approval dates to some listings that previously did not have relocation or completion dates:
  • The numbers for I-129 and I-380 were approved on June 23, 1969.
  • The decommissioning of US 30A (Alternate US 30) from Missouri Valley through Council Bluffs was approved on October 25, 1969.
  • The renumbering of I-80N to an extension of I-680 was approved on November 9, 1973.
  • The truncation of US 77 north of Sioux City was approved on October 3, 1981.
  • The relocation of US 75 from Sioux City to Omaha, NE, was approved May 23, 1984 (a side note: a similar request to move US 75 into Nebraska, replacing NE 133 between Blair and Omaha along the way, was denied on June 17, 1968).
  • Business Loop I-35 in Ames was approved on October 27, 1995, and Business Loop I-35 in Clear Lake was approved on April 17, 1999. On the other hand, a third I-35 business loop was proposed for Lamoni but denied by AASHTO on November 15, 1997.
  • Several business US highways were approved by AASHTO on October 4, 1996, even though signage had existed before then: US 18 in Marquette/McGregor; US 34 in Glenwood, Chariton, and Ottumwa; US 61 in Muscatine and Keokuk; and US 71 in Clarinda. Likewise, Business US 20 and Business US 169 in Fort Dodge were not approved until April 21, 1996, and Business US 151 in Cedar Rapids was not approved until April 27, 1997, when AASHTO met in Des Moines.
  • Also, one item worth mentioning: even though US 151 was extended from Cedar Rapids to I-80 in 1985, AASHTO did not approve the extension until April 21, 1996 — after denying Iowa's request twice in 1986.
  The dates of approval are mentioned at the end of each listing, since they are likely not the same dates that the signs were changed in the field.
• Dave Darby provided me with an update on Historic US 6: there is now a page with an interactive Google map that shows what segments are, or will be, signed as Historic Route 6.
• Exit list updates:
• County Road G76 is finally signed at I-35 exit 43, 11 years after IA 207 was decommissioned. As of early September the only sign that had been replaced was the one-mile advance sign heading north, but I removed the parentheses under the assumption that the remaining signs at this interchange will include G76 when they are replaced in the future.
• Chief Wapello Memorial Park is now signed at US 34 exit 195.

July 30:

• Per this article in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, the city of Cedar Falls accepted its piece of IA 934 on July 21.
• Exit list updates based on recent travels:
• The Convention Complex has been greened out of signs at I-235 Exit 8A, more than a year after it closed.
• A tourist information center in Le Claire is now signed at I-80 Exit 306 (this is not the same Welcome Center that closed at the end of 2011).
• The eastern interchange of I-380 and US 20 is now posted as Exit 238 (although no exit numbering appears for eastbound traffic).
• There are new signs up where southbound IA 27/58 intersects US 20, so I updated that listing to make it look closer to what the signs have.

June 22:

• Updates to highway listings:
• The DOT's 2015-2019 transportation plan was approved by the Transportation Commission on June 10. The only significant change from last year's plan was the delay of the US 30 expressway segment between IA 21 and US 218 in order to get more public input to determine the project's final design. Meanwhile, paving of the Mount Vernon/Lisbon bypass is programmed for the 2019 fiscal year.
• Transfer of jurisdiction agreements have been reached for IA 934 in Cedar Falls only, IA 92 in Muscatine (which will be rerouted onto the US 61 bypass and IA 38 with no change to the latter), IA 98, and IA 152 during the Commission's June 10 meeting. Of those, only the IA 934 listing has been updated; the other listings will be updated once I receive confirmation of removal of signs.
• I added a link to the DOT's Scenic Byways page, which includes an interactive Google map of the state scenic routes, from the top of the Scenic and Historic Routes page.
• I also added a note to IA 31 stating that it will be rerouted around Correctionville in 2015 as part of the widening of US 20 there.
• The bus terminal on Keo Way has closed and is now greened out of signs on I-235, so I have removed all references to the bus terminal from the I-235 exit list.
• The Photo Gallery on Flickr now has over 1,600 photos. Jeff Morrison sent me a "before" photo of a distance sign on IA 9 in Winnebago County that has been added to the Contributed Photos page. (The "after" photo is here.)

April 20:

• Updates to highway listings:
• While I initially omitted the US 20/59 expressway segment near Holstein due to its short length (2½ miles), I have added that expressway segment to both listings since it will someday become part of the border-to-border US 20 expressway. The opening date came from the Holstein Advance of August 27, 1964.
• I added a link to the new terminus photo page for Business US 61 in Davenport to the US 61 and IA 461 listings.
• The four-lane link between northwest Iowa and I-90 in Worthington, MN, was completed last year, so I updated the IA 60 listing to reflect that.
• Exit list updates:
• At the beginning of 2014, Illinois raised its speed limit on rural Interstate highways to 70 MPH. Based on information that I could gather from the AARoads Forum, I updated the I-80, I-74, I-88, I-180 Illinois, I-280, and I-474 lists.
• With the long-term construction projects going on in Sioux City and Council Bluffs, I have added construction alerts to the I-29 south, I-29 north, and I-80 west lists that link to the respective DOT project pages. I have also updated the I-29 north list to reflect some signage changes in the Sioux City area.
• Exits 69A and 69B have permanently closed on I-35 in West Des Moines to make room for a single exit that is scheduled to open this fall.
• I also added some additional details in Perry to the IA 141 list.

March 31:

• Since Mediacom is no longer hosting personal web pages, I have moved everything to a new server. Going forward, www.iowahighways.org is the only URL that will work for the Iowa Highways Page, so please update your links if you still link to iowahighways.home.mchsi.com.
• I added a mention of the opening of the I-480 bridge to the US 6 listing under the Upgrades section.

February 16: Two quick exit list updates:

• Jeff Morrison spotted a signage change at IA 5 exit 101: the Southwest Connector in West Des Moines is now known as Veterans Parkway.
• Dan Drackley reports that the secondary signs along I-29 at exits 20 (NB) and 24 (SB) now read "Forneys Lake".

January 11:

• Jeff Morrison confirmed from the DOT that IA 2 east of the US 61 bypass was turned over to the city of Fort Madison on December 2, 2013. In addition, IA 961 within the Fort Madison city limits was turned over to Fort Madison on September 30. I updated both highway listings, the US 61 listing, and the US 61 Fort Madison exit list (adding "WEST" in parentheses to Exit 18 for now).
• I also added links to Clinched Highway Mapping and the county counting site Mob-rule.com to the Links page under General Highway Sites.

Past updates:

• 2013
• 2012
• 2011
• 2010
• 2009
• 2008
• 2007 (second half)
• 2007 (first half)
• 2006 (second half)
• 2006 (first half)
• 2005 (second half)
• 2005 (first half)
• 2004 (second half)
• 2004 (first half)
• 2003 (second half)
• 2003 (first half)
• 2002 (second half)
• 2002 (first half)
• 2001
• 2000

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