Highway Page Updates
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.
November 15:
- The former segment of US 34 though Fairfield, which is mostly signed as Business US 34, is now designated as IA 904 according to the Iowa DOT's city map of Fairfield. This is the first new 900-series highway in at least ten years. The 900 series page and US 34 listing have both been updated.
- Exit list updates:
- After spotting IA 163 signs south of Oskaloosa last weekend I have updated the IA 163/US 63 and US 34 exit lists to reflect the IA 163 extension even though the extension may not be fully signed yet.
- Kyle Johnson mentioned that the secondary signs for Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa have changed at exits 36 and 42 along US 63.
- According to Dan Drackley and verified via Google Maps' Street View, Fort Crook Road is also signed at the Chandler Road exit on southbound US 75 in Bellevue, NE.
October 18: Taking some time out of my busy schedule for a couple of updates:
- The Hawk Eye of Burlington confirmed in this article that IA 163 is being extended as a second number along US 63 and US 34 from Oskaloosa to Burlington in order to give the Des Moines-to-Burlington expressway a continuous number. Kurt Berge mentioned that IA 163 signs have already been posted in the Burlington area. Exit lists will be updated once I receive confirmation that freeway signs have changed. The Table of Active Highways list has also been updated; this extension makes IA 163 the second-longest intrastate highway in Iowa (since it ends at the Illinois line without continuing or changing numbers). The new length of IA 163 was computed through Mapquest.
- I also updated the lengths of US 34, US 218, and IA 60 thanks to Mapquest.
- Exit list updates, based on a road trip to northern Iowa this weekend and a previous trip to Iowa City in September:
- I-80 is now six lanes wide between I-380 and the Iowa River in Coralville.
- County Road S27 is now signed at US 20 exit 162, six years after IA 359's decommissioning.
- A tourist information center has opened in Nashua and is now signed along US 218/IA 27 exit #220, while the Iowa State Patrol office in Mason City has moved from Exit #183 to Exit #186.
- Street names in Grimes have changed as part of a city-wide renumbering of streets, so I updated the IA 141 list to show the new names for NW 54th Avenue (SE 37th Street) and NW 62nd Avenue (SE 19th Street).
August 30:
- Jeff Morrison created a new page listing historic highway alignments in Fort Dodge. I added links to the main page and to the appropriate individual route listings, including US 20, US 169, and IA 5 (I).
- IA 291, which was decommissioned in 1980, has finally been removed from the Rand McNally Road Atlas.
- The Council Bluffs Airport is now signed at I-80 exit 8.
August 23:
- Scott Oglesby posted a link to a 2008 document from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation called Numbering State Trunk Highways: A Survey of Methods Used by State DOT's on misc.transport.road recently. The Iowa DOT provided a table of highway listings in this survey, which includes links back to the highway listings on this site.
- Two unsigned highways on that list were reactivated — IA 342 in Eddyville and IA 431 west of Le Grand — since they still appear on the DOT's county and city maps.
- The bypassed portion of US 151 in Monticello was briefly designated as IA 303.
- IA 437 is the official designation for a former IA 137 segment in Eddyville.
- IA 450, which does not appear on any map, exists as a connecting road between IA 10 and IA 60 near Alton.
- A former segment of IA 60 north of Le Mars was designated as IA 960 — the first new 900-series number in years — but according to the 2008 Plymouth County map it is no longer a state highway. IA 960 did not meet the criteria for being listed on the 900-series page but it is mentioned under the IA 60 listing.
- The I-280 bridge in the Quad Cities has a new name: the Sergeant John F. Baker, Jr., Bridge. The I-280 highway listing, Highways of Davenport and Bettendorf page, and caption on the Bridges of the Mississippi photo page have been updated to reflect this.
- IA 404 (II) may not be active in Sibley anymore, but the 2010 Rand McNally Road Atlas shows it.
- I updated the US 34 exit list to reflect signing changes spotted at Exits 210 and 212 in Fairfield.
July 26:
- Jeff Morrison was in northwest Iowa recently and saw that the former IA 390 is no longer signed as "Highway 390" in Buena Vista County's street numbering system. Google Maps and Yahoo Maps also state that IA 352 is now 115th Street.
- Exit list updates:
- The University of Iowa Oakdale Campus is now the University of Iowa Research Park, and signs on I-80 exit 240 have been changed to reflect this.
- Jeff Morrison noted that the Omaha tribal casino in Onawa is no longer signed at I-29 exit 112 since the casino has closed.
June 21:
- According to this brief in the Washington Evening Journal, the interchange of US 218 and County Road G36 north of Ainsworth opened on June 17.
- The 2010-2014 transportation plan has been approved, and here are some notable projects:
- I-35 in West Des Moines between I-80/235 and IA 5 is scheduled to be widened from four to six lanes by the end of 2016 per this Des Moines Register article. Work is also scheduled to continue on I-29 in Sioux City and I-29/I-80 in Council Bluffs through 2014.
- Right-of-way acquisition for the widened I-74 in Davenport and Bettendorf has been budgeted for each of the five years in this transportation plan.
- Paving of the four-lane US 20 between US 71 and the current west end of the expressway segment near Moorland is still scheduled for completion in 2013.
- The two-lane segment of US 30 from US 65 to IA 330 is scheduled to become four lanes by the end of 2010 as the segment from State Center to IA 330 was moved up from its previous completion year of 2013. The Tama/Toledo bypass is still scheduled for completion in 2010.
- The relocation of US 34 west of Glenwood into Nebraska is still on track for completion in 2013.
- The US 61 bypass of Fort Madison is still scheduled for completion in 2011.
- The four-lane US 63 between IA 188 and IA 3 is now scheduled for completion in 2012.
May 25:
- I added information about the White Pole Road and links to the White Pole Road's website from the IA 2 (I) and IA 925 highway listings. While at it I also added a link to the Iowa chapter of the US Route 6 Touring Association from the US 6 listing.
- The interchange of US 275 and US 30 at Fremont, NE, has opened and I updated the exit list.
April 26:
- I replaced three photos on the Des Moines page of the Photo Gallery.
- I also made some minor updates to the US 61 exit list to reflect signage changes near the Dubuque airport and in Jackson County.
March 15: These updates are related to the online release of the 2009 Iowa transportation map:
- US 34 has been reclassified as a freeway between US 63 in Ottumwa and IA 16 near Eldon, so I updated the highway and exit listings.
- Exit numbers on non-interstate freeways and expressways appear on the map for the first time, and the yet-to-open interchange of US 218 at Washington County Road G36 is shown as Exit 70. (The map also shows the interchange with IA 92 as Exit 66; the exit list has been updated to show both exit numbers even though it may not be signed as such yet.)
- All segments of unsigned IA 404 (II) that were previously part of IA 60 are no longer under state control. However, part of Business US 75 in Le Mars carries the IA 404 designation according to the current map of Le Mars.
- In addition, according to this article in the Mount Pleasant News, Danville took over its segment of IA 434 (formerly US 34) on May 8, 2008.
- The number for the old US 34 segment through Fairfield is unknown at this point.
February 16:
- Photo Gallery updates:
- I added a note to the County Roads of Iowa page as Dave Brown pointed out that County Road W66 was relocated in Johnson, Washington, and Louisa counties sometime in the 1980s.
- I also added a link to Jeff Morrison's Muscatine highway history page from the main page.
January 18: Two updates based on spottings from Dan Drackley:
- IA 165, which was unsigned last April, is now signed again. I also removed the broken link to Carter Lake's page on IA 165 and did some rearranging of the notes section of that highway.
- County Road J24 (formerly IA 145) is now signed at I-29 exit 20.
January 4: The Yamamoto Experience seems to have disappeared, so I removed the links from the I-29 north exit list and the Freeway Junctions About Page, adding a link to the Open Directory Project's exit list directory to the latter.
Past updates:
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© 2009 by Jason Hancock