I-35 / US 30 Flyover Progress

[2speedy1]

What is the reason for tearing up the south 2 lanes of I35 headed towards Des Moines and then have that goofy uneven curve back to the old I35?

I think it is both to make room for upgrading to 6 lanes eventually, and also because the 2 sides of the interstate are too close together in areas, causing for too narrow of a median. This is a safety concern even with the cable down the center. Medians are designed to keep cars from going into the other oncoming lanes of traffic, as speeds increase these areas with narrow medians have had to be widened as well as adding the cable guard down the center in order to be a sufficient buffer to slow a vehicle down before it gets to the other lanes. Same with 35 south of DM.
At least that is what I have been told anyway.

 

[ISUAgronomist]

Do they still have to redo all of the tile work on the piers?

They pressure washed them off late last week. No way are they going to redo the punch card messages.

 

[Cyclones_R_GR8]

part of preparing that stretch for 3 lanes in each direction between ankeny and ames i think. though that's a ways off still, somehow, despite it being needed 10 years ago.

Typical road work, always years behind. Onaha will approve multiple housing developments without improving the road until traffic is so backed up. Then they start thinking about it.

 

[JP4CY]

What is the reason for tearing up the south 2 lanes of I35 headed towards Des Moines and then have that goofy uneven curve back to the old I35?

part of preparing that stretch for 3 lanes in each direction between ankeny and ames i think. though that's a ways off still, somehow, despite it being needed 10 years ago.

I know they replaced atleast 1 E-W bridge with new piers and did quite a bit of culvert work.
The 3 lanes in each direction will be a Godsend.

 

[Cycsk]

The project is said to have intentions of reducing accidents. I wonder if that will really happen, especially at first. I am not impressed with Iowa drivers' ability to merge at speed. It seems like there could be some nasty accidents just over the crest of this overpass as cars are flying toward it, but others are braking hard because somebody isn't merging well (or even stopping as I've seen too often on the current interchange).

 

[CYdTracked]

141 is a state highway and I don't feel like it's moving very fast at all

I drive by it all the time and I think it's been going up rather quickly. They just started on it late last year it seems like and they are already setting some of the beams now.

 

[chuckd4735]

I know they replaced atleast 1 E-W bridge with new piers and did quite a bit of culvert work.
The 3 lanes in each direction will be a Godsend.

They also raised that section of interstate quite a few feet to help keep it open during flooding events.

 

[cycloner29]

Still it being only two lanes, the accidents that happen along the stretch from Ames to Ankeny always back up traffic for miles. I was headed north a few weeks ago and was just north of the 210 exit and there was a gravel truck with a flat tire in the southbound lanes and Huxley PD was trying to merge traffic down to one lane. Traffic was backed up to the Hwy 30/I-35 exit!! When do they put another overpass and exits along that stretch or go to three lanes?

 

[JP4CY]

Still it being only two lanes, the accidents that happen along the stretch from Ames to Ankeny always back up traffic for miles. I was headed north a few weeks ago and was just north of the 210 exit and there was a gravel truck with a flat tire in the southbound lanes and Huxley PD was trying to merge traffic down to one lane. Traffic was backed up to the Hwy 30/I-35 exit!! When do they put another overpass and exits along that stretch or go to three lanes?

Traffic will back up when there is an accident on the other side of the interstate. That's how bad it and drivers are.

 

[CYdTracked]

Still it being only two lanes, the accidents that happen along the stretch from Ames to Ankeny always back up traffic for miles. I was headed north a few weeks ago and was just north of the 210 exit and there was a gravel truck with a flat tire in the southbound lanes and Huxley PD was trying to merge traffic down to one lane. Traffic was backed up to the Hwy 30/I-35 exit!! When do they put another overpass and exits along that stretch or go to three lanes?

Drive in the DM Metro much? It can be 3 or 4 lanes wide in 1 direction and still be bumper to bumper sometimes because people are gawking at someone pulled over or on the shoulder changing a flat tire.

I can't wait for the 141 flyover project to be complete, will hopefully make that interchange a lot safer and more efficient. They've been widening I35/80 between 86th street to eventually go all the way down to Douglas or Hickman eventually it looks like and that extra lane or 2 they are adding in places should hopefully make the on/off merges in that area a lot better. The on ramp from 141 is a pain in the butt in the mornings because it goes from 2 to 1 lanes and people still have not figured out how to properly alternate merging even with damn signs telling you to. Then you have the off ramp to 141 from westbound to northbound 141 where the far right lane has signs up that you don't have to stop as that lane just merges right into 141 yet people still stop at the light thinking they have to wait on oncoming traffic. Doesn't matter where you are driving in the state, there will always be people who lack driving skills that make traffic worse than it should be.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

The project is said to have intentions of reducing accidents. I wonder if that will really happen, especially at first. I am not impressed with Iowa drivers' ability to merge at speed. It seems like there could be some nasty accidents just over the crest of this overpass as cars are flying toward it, but others are braking hard because somebody isn't merging well (or even stopping as I've seen too often on the current interchange).

That flyover ramp will be 10 times safer than the old clover leaf design. 35 N merging onto 30 West was absolutely stupid.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

Drive in the DM Metro much? It can be 3 or 4 lanes wide in 1 direction and still be bumper to bumper sometimes because people are gawking at someone pulled over or on the shoulder changing a flat tire.

I can't wait for the 141 flyover project to be complete, will hopefully make that interchange a lot safer and more efficient. They've been widening I35/80 between 86th street to eventually go all the way down to Douglas or Hickman eventually it looks like and that extra lane or 2 they are adding in places should hopefully make the on/off merges in that area a lot better. The on ramp from 141 is a pain in the butt in the mornings because it goes from 2 to 1 lanes and people still have not figured out how to properly alternate merging even with damn signs telling you to. Then you have the off ramp to 141 from westbound to northbound 141 where the far right lane has signs up that you don't have to stop as that lane just merges right into 141 yet people still stop at the light thinking they have to wait on oncoming traffic. Doesn't matter where you are driving in the state, there will always be people who lack driving skills that make traffic worse than it should be.

The concern I have with the 141 flyover is that people are going to run right into sitting traffic because of all of the stupid stop lights... The design makes sense on paper but there is no traffic flow through that stretch of 141. It is going to be a mess.

 

[Cycsk]

That flyover ramp will be 10 times safer than the old clover leaf design. 35 N merging onto 30 West was absolutely stupid.

The current cloverleaf, especially the northbound exit to westbound US-30, is unsafe 24/7 all year long. I think the new flyover will be much safer 358 days per year, but not necessarily on the 7 game days, especially the first season it is used and even good drivers are still getting used to it. They will probably have State Troopers at the start of the exit to help people slow down and that will help, but I'm worried about the other end of the ramp. I've been in too many situations in Iowa where people just don't know how to merge at the end of a ramp. The speed of people coming on the fly-over and the risk of people going too slow to merge has me worried. Hope I'm wrong.

 

[Bader]

The current cloverleaf, especially the northbound exit to westbound US-30, is unsafe 24/7 all year long. I think the new flyover will be much safer 358 days per year, but not necessarily on the 7 game days, especially the first season it is used and even good drivers are still getting used to it. They will probably have State Troopers at the start of the exit to help people slow down and that will help, but I'm worried about the other end of the ramp. I've been in too many situations in Iowa where people just don't know how to merge at the end of a ramp. The speed of people coming on the fly-over and the risk of people going too slow to merge has me worried. Hope I'm wrong.

The ramp exits into its own lane and you have until the Dayton exit to get over, it's not like you're off the ramp and then on 30

 

[CYdTracked]

The concern I have with the 141 flyover is that people are going to run right into sitting traffic because of all of the stupid stop lights... The design makes sense on paper but there is no traffic flow through that stretch of 141. It is going to be a mess.

They already run into sitting traffic that backs up onto I35/I80 with the current intersection which makes that a dangerous off ramp. That flyover is going to take them off the main drag of 35/80 that it backs up on and eventually will merge right into 141 so there will be a TON more roadway of cushion than there is right now. Yes the lights suck on 141 and it was a piss poor design to not build that as a freeway with overpasses like there is over Highway 44 but it's too late now to correct that without shutting down 141 entirely and moving a ton of dirt around to make an overpass intersection at the 3 stoplights between there and hwy 44. The flyover project and additional lanes going in around that intersection though is going to be a huge improvement no matter how you want to look at it.

 

[cycloner29]

Drive in the DM Metro much? It can be 3 or 4 lanes wide in 1 direction and still be bumper to bumper sometimes because people are gawking at someone pulled over or on the shoulder changing a flat tire.

I can't wait for the 141 flyover project to be complete, will hopefully make that interchange a lot safer and more efficient. They've been widening I35/80 between 86th street to eventually go all the way down to Douglas or Hickman eventually it looks like and that extra lane or 2 they are adding in places should hopefully make the on/off merges in that area a lot better. The on ramp from 141 is a pain in the butt in the mornings because it goes from 2 to 1 lanes and people still have not figured out how to properly alternate merging even with damn signs telling you to. Then you have the off ramp to 141 from westbound to northbound 141 where the far right lane has signs up that you don't have to stop as that lane just merges right into 141 yet people still stop at the light thinking they have to wait on oncoming traffic. Doesn't matter where you are driving in the state, there will always be people who lack driving skills that make traffic worse than it should be.

Nope. I work from home so I don't get to play bumper cars. I did get my NASCAR license though after driving in Washington DC and in Puerto Rico. You really have to "drive it like you own it"!!

 

[VeloClone]

...
Doesn't matter where you are driving in the world, there will always be people who lack driving skills that make traffic worse than it should be.

Fixed. And this could end up extended even further. The only reason there weren't lunar traffic issues on the later Apollo landings was because they only took up one rover vehicle at a time.

 

[bluestarcyclone]

Fixed. And this could end up extended even further. The only reason there weren't lunar traffic issues on the later Apollo landings was because they only took up one rover vehicle at a time.

That and space is ******* huge.

You could probably put every car in existence in the space between the earth and the moon and probably not be within miles of anyone.

 

[Remo Gaggi]

The current cloverleaf, especially the northbound exit to westbound US-30, is unsafe 24/7 all year long. I think the new flyover will be much safer 358 days per year, but not necessarily on the 7 game days, especially the first season it is used and even good drivers are still getting used to it. They will probably have State Troopers at the start of the exit to help people slow down and that will help, but I'm worried about the other end of the ramp. I've been in too many situations in Iowa where people just don't know how to merge at the end of a ramp. The speed of people coming on the fly-over and the risk of people going too slow to merge has me worried. Hope I'm wrong.

Just add to that all of the drunk hoks that will be trying to drive to the game on September 14. I'm getting up before sunrise and driving up to avoid that CF. How many of them will just drive off the overpass? I'm expecting to see a lot of cars piled up on the ground below.

 

[bluestarcyclone]

The ramp exits into its own lane and you have until the Dayton exit to get over, it's not like you're off the ramp and then on 30

Looking at it on street view, you actually have until a bit after the exit (just after the bridge) to enter the main US 30 lanes.

I35S to US30W has to merge in almost immediately into the right onramp lane that came from I35N
I35N to US30W onramp has 2 lanes:
The right lane you merge into the left lane or get shunted off onto Dayton
The left lane, which ends just past the Dayton bridge.

It also looks like if traffic showed a need they could probably extend that lane past the dayton onramp if they needed to, plenty of room in the area at least until you hit the skunk river bridge, where i imagine adding a third lane gets quite a bit more expensive. Not that i think it'll be needed. That's a long stretch for people to merge into, especially if there's some police assistance on gameday.