DOT eyes major improvements to I-80, I-380
The Iowa Department of Transportation’s long-range planning effort, Iowa in Motion 2045, has progressed far enough for the DOT to predict some routes that could be in line for widening or other improvements.
- Widening and other improvements could come to Interstate Highway 380 from Cedar Rapids to Iowa City, Interstate 35 from Des Moines to Ames, and the Interstate 80 corridor from western Dallas County to the Mississippi River, the DOT wrote in a blog.
Those are areas that are likely to be approaching or beyond capacity by 2040.
- A number of two-lane highways could be retooled to widen shoulders or to add turn lanes, even if the routes aren’t expanded to four lanes. Those include U.S. highways 71, 63, 18, 30 and 34. The DOT analyzed crash statistics, average annual daily traffic, percentage of truck traffic, average trip length on the corridor and roadway grades, among other factors.
The blog post includes a map that shows traffic projections.
“As you can see from the map of forecast traffic, it suggests our roadway system is relatively mature, meaning we should have enough capacity in the majority of the state to handle the projected traffic loads,” Garrett Pedersen, DOT transportation planner, said in a statement. “While some corridors with capacity needs may require more traffic lanes, various types of strategies may be able to address such needs in other areas. The data matches up well with the input we received from Iowans through our surveys, showing that these key interstate corridors in particular are seen as needing more capacity.”
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