I-35 / US 30 Flyover Progress
- Thread starter scottie33
- Start date
Yep. I'd love to get that up to 3 lanes with a 'no trucks in the left lane' (also no trucks in left lane for 35\80... when they go 3 wide through there its annoying)
Looking at maps here US-20 west of fort dodge generally has 4500-6000 cars\day. Less than much of US 69 between Ames and Des Moines, which is 2 lanes. 69 is 5300-6800, 35 is pulling down 45k\day (4x the cars\lane).
May be 'nicer' but not sure needed as much compared to 35 or 80. Hell, one could argue that US-69 should've been upgraded to 4 lanes before US 20 given it has more traffic on it.
It comes down to priorities, since we arent willing to spend enough to take care of all of our road upgrades needed\desired.
Yeah it's a real shame they finally finished a project that should have been done 20 yrs ago and relieves pressure on I-80 and gives the north central part of the state a chance for economic growth. Nice Des Moines centered attitude though. I haven't seen the DOT traffic numbers but just driving on completed Hwy 20 traffic seems to be up substantially.
"Should have been done 20 years ago"
According to what justification? Just because a politician once made a promise to an area of the state that voted for him religiously doesn't mean that it was justified then or now.
The idea that highway 20, particularly in Western iowa, relieves i-80 traffic in any significant amount is pretty unlikely. You could maybe argue that for us 30 (which runs near i-80 for most of the US) , or that 20 diverts from i-90 (which isn't congested) but not so much for i-80 traffic diverting to 20. It's far off the route.
Hell, most of the counties west of I35 around there are decreasing in population and have been for decades. Why in any world is more capacity needed for fewer people? On the other side of that coin by 2040 Ankeny alone (not to mention growth in places like Huxley and Elkhart) is expected to add more people than the entire current (and shrinking) population of Hamilton, Webster, Calhoun, Sac, and Ida counties, and therefore roads like I35 (and US69, and I80) have more demonstrated need for expansion than highway 20 did.
Again, it comes down to priorities. Unless you're willing to tax enough to up revenue so that all desired projects can be funded, the projects in most need should always come first when our state is shorthanded on road funds. That means the most congested should be the first to get capacity increases. However because we spent hundreds of millions of dollars on unneeded capacity up there, the improvements to actual roads in need will come well, well after they are needed
Economic growth can be reliant on a good transportation network. Most industrial uses won't even look at sites that don't have good access to the interstate network. So if you are trying to help the shrinking population in NW Iowa, a project like this can help.
Adding lanes to roads has proven over and over again to temporarily add capacity, and long term increases the ammount of traffic on the road. So putting money into making I80 between Des Moines and Iowa City 6 lanes rather then to get Hwy 30 up to 4 lanes in Benton County would be foolish, IMO. Finishing Hwy 30 should alleviate some traffic on 80.
Also, these decisions are made by the entire legislature during budget, not just one politician, so a majority of the legislature agreed that project was necessary.
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Since the delay isn't affecting the ability to get onto 30 westbound it would be hard to justify a huge daily penalty in my opinion.
There are also the costs of all that equipment that is mostly just sitting there. Anyone know what that is costing the construction company?
Depends. If they are renting it, it would be thousands. If they already own it and it’s paid off, then nothing other than lost profits.
Any liquidated damages would be in the original contracts so it isn't like they are arbitrarily dinging the contractor(s).
Yeah, I don't know how he thought he was getting one over on anyone. Everyone knows the spot where that hawk flag is buried will be the first spot to crater just like Fran's teams.
I think Manatt's fired him.
I can see both sides of this. On one hand, "if you build it they will come" has been used to justify all sorts of things over the years, including the construction of and SEZ expansion to Jack Trice Stadium. And, while this is absolutely no reason at all to do a multi-hundreds of millions project, having bits and pieces of it done over the years then reverting back to two-lane roads in places just always seemed half-assed. And again this is no reason to do a project like that, but now if or when rural northwest Iowa declines because of its population's continued exodus to metro areas, they won't have any excuses because we gave them what they said they needed.
But you're 100% right that about allocating dollars to where it is needed. The city/rural conflict in Iowa is as vicious as it's ever been and that will assuredly keep dollars out of metro areas where we'd get the most bang for the buck.
If I'm reading that interactive map correctly, on US 69 just north of Ankeny they will be replacing the two bridges over Four Mile Creek - one in 2022, the other in 2023. Would that not mean a road closure for two consecutive summers? Why not do them at once?
Further, it looks like the bridge over I-35 at the Elkhart exit would be replaced in 2023 as well. If that road and 69 are both closed in 2023, what a fun summer that will be for those residents.
