Length in Iowa: 307 miles/494 kilometers
Western terminus: Nebraska state line (Missouri
River) at Council Bluffs
Eastern terminus: Illinois state line
(Mississippi River) at Le Claire
Entrance photos
Counties: Pottawattamie, Cass, Adair, Madison, Dallas, Polk,
Jasper, Poweshiek, Iowa, Johnson, Cedar, Scott
Cities along route: Council Bluffs, Underwood, Neola, Minden,
Shelby, Avoca, Walnut, Adair, Casey, Menlo, Stuart, Dexter, Earlham, De
Soto, Van Meter, West Des Moines, Clive, Grimes, Urbandale, Johnston, Des
Moines, Altoona, Bondurant, Mitchellville, Colfax, Newton, Kellogg, Oakland
Acres, Grinnell, Malcom, Brooklyn, Guernsey, Victor, Williamsburg, Oxford,
Tiffin, Coralville, Iowa City, West Branch, Durant, Walcott,
Davenport, Eldridge, Bettendorf, Le Claire
Exit lists:
From Exit #1 to Exit #123 (I-35/235)
From Exit #123 to Exit #138 (multiplex with I-35)
From Exit #138 to Exit #239 (I-380/US 218)
From Exit #239 eastward into Illinois
Multiplexes:
3 miles with I-29, between exits #1A and #4
through Council Bluffs
50 miles with US 6, from Exit #60 in Cass County to
Exit #110 in Dallas County
14 miles with I-35, from Exit #123 in West Des Moines
to Exit #138 north of Des Moines. (In both Interstate multiplexes, I-80's exit numbers
are used.)
1½ miles with US 65, between exits #141 and #142
in Altoona
22 miles with US 6 (again), from Exit #142 in Altoona to Exit #164 near Newton
4 miles with IA 38, from Exit #267 to Exit #271 in Cedar
County
19 more miles with US 6, from Exit #271 north of Wilton to Exit #290 in Davenport
5½ miles with US 61, from Exit #290 to Exit #295 in Davenport
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1954: Plans for a toll road roughly following I-80's present route
-- including a new bridge from Le Claire into Port Byron, IL -- were
approved. However, the passing of the Interstate Highway Act in 1956 shelved
those plans.
September 21, 1958: First segment, from the future western split with I-35 and
Douglas Avenue (now in Urbandale), opened (with I-35)
November 9, 1958: Segment between Douglas Avenue and Merle Hay Road (IA 401) opened
(with I-35)
November 28, 1959: Segments between Merle Hay Road and US 69 north of Des Moines
(with I-35), and between the Adair interchange and IA 25 opened
September 5, 1960: Segments between US 71 and Adair, and between IA 25 and the US 6
interchange east of Dexter, opened
November 17, 1960: Segment between US 69 and the US 6 exit between Colfax and Newton
opened
December 1, 1960: Segment between the western split with IA 38 and US 61 in Davenport opened
August 24, 1962: Segment between old IA 1 (now the Hoover Highway) east of Iowa City and
IA 38 completed
October 8, 1962: Segment between US 6 and IA 14 at Newton opened
November 16, 1962: Segments between IA 14 and IA 146 near Grinnell, and between IA 1 (formerly IA 261) and the old IA 1, opened
November 15, 1963: Segment between US 218 (later IA 965) and IA 1 in the Iowa City area
opened
October 23, 1964: Segment between IA 146 and US 218 opened. William H. Thompson, author
of the book Transportation in Iowa: A Historical Summary (1989), called the completion
of this 56-mile segment "probably the most spectacular effort that Iowa has seen in fifty
years of road building."
November 25, 1964: Segment between US 61 and US 67 at Le Claire opened
December 16, 1965: Segment between US 59 near Avoca and US 71 opened
October 27, 1966: Bridge between US 67 and Illinois opened
December 13, 1966: Segments between the future I-80/I-680 interchange and US
59, and between US 6 and the southwest I-35/80/235 junction, completed.
(At that point, I-680 had been built from I-29 to
I-80 and was designated as I-80N until 1973.)
July 22, 1968: Segment between Madison Avenue and US 6 in Council Bluffs opened
December 22, 1969: Segment between IA 192 and Madison Avenue in Council Bluffs, and between US 6
in Council Bluffs and the I-80/I-680 interchange, opened
November 1, 1970: Segment between I-29 and IA 192 in Council Bluffs completed
December 15, 1972: Last segment, from Nebraska over the Missouri River to I-29,
completed.
1995: Bridge over Mississippi River at Le Claire renamed for Fred
Schwengel, a former congressman from Davenport who died in 1993; he was
one of the driving forces behind the Interstate Highway Act.
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