US 61 in Iowa

[tkiller314]

http://qctimes.com/news/local/u-s-to-be-improved-in-louisa-county/article_41ab2497-567e-5a64-9edc-d6f56db8e2d2.html

Does this pose any potential for related projects?

[iowahighways]

http://qctimes.com/news/local/u-s-to-be-improved-in-louisa-county/article_41ab2497-567e-5a64-9edc-d6f56db8e2d2.html

Does this pose any potential for related projects?

They are working on designs for expressway segments around Wapello and Mediapolis to close that gap between Muscatine and Burlington. However, the segment from IA 92 northward is the only one that's funded in the current five-year plan. (The designs for that project are here.)

[edwaleni]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I located construction on US-61 from south of Wapella to south of Mediapolis north of Burlington.

When I went to check Iowa DOT, they said the original studies and plan were done in 1996 but I found this line in the 2026-2030 Highway Funding Plan.

U.S. 61 improvement from north of Mediapolis to Iowa 92 in Des Moines and Louisa Counties

When I checked, US-61 (which they call the "Blues Highway") is already a 4 lane facility back to Muscatine south to the Iowa River (132nd Street).

So I guess the question is what is the requirement that is driving this road expansion?

Avenue of the Saints (US-218) is a few miles west of US-61 here and meets in Keokuk.

Is this Iowa's response to Illinois and US-67 from the Quad Cities to St Louis?

[Revive 755]

^ I think it's more that the Avenue of the Saints misses the cities along the Mississippi.  Had there not been the larger view of connection St. Louis and St. Paul, I don't think US 218 would have been four laned.  Instead US 61 would have been four-laned with either IL 38 four-laned up to I-80 or a somewhat more direct connector built between Muscatine and the Iowa City area.

[iowahighways]

^ I think it's more that the Avenue of the Saints misses the cities along the Mississippi.  Had there not been the larger view of connection St. Louis and St. Paul, I don't think US 218 would have been four laned.  Instead US 61 would have been four-laned with either IL 38 four-laned up to I-80 or a somewhat more direct connector built between Muscatine and the Iowa City area.

Per the map shown here that appeared in the Des Moines Register on May 3, 1964, that was exactly the original plan:



But in 1968, the Iowa Highway Commission revised its freeway/expressway plan and shifted its southeast Iowa freeway plan toward what would become the Avenue of the Saints:



That map appeared in the Des Moines Tribune on February 7, 1968. Jeff Morrison wrote a page about what happened to what was proposed in the 1968 plan several years ago.

[edwaleni]

Thank you for the links on the history behind it.

Just another state with a bunch of planned supplemental 4 lane highways on the books, but little or no money after 1973 to carry out a bunch of them. Back when the US was way over committed financially, fighting wars, building highways and bridges and going to the moon.

I was curious if there is a significant amount of truck traffic from Muscatine to Burlington and farther to Keokuk.

One of the arguments in Illinois is that even with the CKC, there just isn't *that* much truck traffic between the Quad Cities and St Louis to justify so much of the supplemental using US-67.

And not to detract from the thread title, the blurb in the report on Project 520 was very interesting. I have *driven* US-20 across Iowa even while the 4 lane was still missing in certain segments and making you get off to see these really nice small towns. Illinois owns all the ROW on the Mississippi River to build a new bridge to connect to the new route from Peosta (US-52) and bypass downtown, but its the City of Dubuque that keeps putting up the noise. I am surprised Iowa got as much done as they did, even though the road is a little misplaced.

Illinois is working to build a new bridge next to the Julien Dubuque instead, all so more traffic can stop at a stop light downtown. Go figure. Hash for another thread.

[SEWIGuy]

The quickest way between the Quad Cities and St. Louis is still I-74, I-155 and I-55.