I also live in this area and am concerned about traffic on Highway 44 once all that retail opens. I'm hoping Grimes/Iowa has a plan to widen it.
I've wondered this myself, the main drag through Grimes has me a little worried there may not be enough room to widen it to a full 4 lanes without infringing on a lot of front lawns and business parking in some of the more narrow parts of it. It basically is 4 lanes up to McDonalds/Kum & Go on the east side of 44 then built out on the West side of town there is enough room to widen to 4 lanes heading west out of town too. They haven't opened up that new road going north into that development yet but it looks like it goes from 2 lanes to 1 just north of the stop light which I don't get with that kind of plan for that area why they just didn't do 4 lanes from the start.
Grimes needs to widen James street going south out of town to where they just widened it to 4 lanes at the new R&R realty buildings but have a feeling the delay there is the money it is going to cost to acquire a few miles of farm land they would have to purchase through eminent domain to make that happen. I know just that less than a mile stretch they widened a couple years ago was pricy because they were trying to get it for $750k an acre and the owners wanted $1 mil an acre. I watched a replay of a special meeting the council had to have about that project with the city attorneys and they were basically told that by the time they were to challenge the assessment on the land they wanted to acquire and all the legal fees and delays and such they would incur while that was going on they may as well just pay them what they are asking because after all the time and money spent to negotiate it down they would still not net enough saving to make it worth the effort. I take James to and from work most of the time because my kid's daycare is on that road just before it hits Hickman so I don't use 141 a lot. James has gotten better since the last widening project that put in permanent stop light at the R&R complex but as the town grows it is going to need a 2nd major road south out of town and that is the most logical and currently most used road that is going to need to go to 4 lanes next.