Iowa’s state transportation commission would be required to prioritize making all of U.S. Highway 30 four lanes under a bill passed by the Iowa House on Thursday.
Lawmakers passed House File 2569 by a vote of 87-4. The bill would require the Iowa Transportation Commission to include in its long-range planning plans to make the entire length of Highway 30 four lanes — including a 40-mile stretch between DeWitt and Lisbon, just east of Cedar Rapids, and between Carroll and Ogden in western Iowa.
Economic developers, business leaders and government officials in Clinton County have advocated for the better part of two decades for the state to modify and expand Highway 30 between DeWitt and Lisbon to four lanes.
Representatives with the U.S. Highway 30 Coalition have told lawmakers such a project would spur rural business development, foster population growth, improve roadway safety, lessen congestion on Interstate 80 and match the majority of Highway 30’s cross-state footprint.
Instead of a four-lane layout, the Iowa Department of Transportation’s five-year highway plan calls for changing the current two-lane layout of Highway 30 from Lisbon to Stanwood to a “super-two" configuration that would enable the construction of wider lanes, a hard shoulder and occasional turning and passing lanes.
Work is scheduled to begin for the fiscal year that starts July 1 and ends June 30, 2025, with pavement improvement from east of Lisbon to west of Mechanicsville. Property acquisition for the section of highway west of Mechanicsville to west of Stanwood is scheduled to begin in fiscal year 2025 and construction in FY 2026.
Meanwhile, work is ongoing to finish four-lane construction in Benton County, which is slated to be completed this year, according to the DOT.
Stuart Anderson, director of transportation development for the Iowa DOT, said the DOT decided against a four-lane layout in favor of the “super two” alternative due to cost savings. He said the DOT estimated it would cost 15 to 20 percent of the cost of upgrading to a four-lane highway and wouldn’t require nearly as much property acquisition.
The bill was amended to state the Iowa DOT would not use eminent domain to acquire land necessary to expand two-lane sections of U.S. 30 to four lanes until it has expended “all reasonable alternatives, if the land is a part of century farm or residential real estate property.”
Traffic moves along Highway 30 just east of the L Avenue interchange in Tama in 2015. Iowa’s state transportation commission would be required to prioritize making all of U.S. Highway 30 four lanes under a bill passed by the Iowa House on Thursday. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
A study conducted by Iowa engineering firm Snyder and Associates, and paid for by the Highway 30 Coalition, estimated it would cost more than $636 million to expand a 45-mile stretch of the highway to four lanes between Carroll and Ogden and a 44-mile stretch from Lisbon to DeWitt over a 10-year period, and the estimated financial benefit to the state would be more than $770 million.
Roughly 160 miles of the 331-mile-long highway in Iowa is four lanes. The study did not include the cost to expand the stretch of highway west of Carroll.
U.S. Route 30 — often called the Lincoln Highway — spans cost-to-coast from Atlantic City, N.J., to Astoria, Ore.
A fiscal analysis of the bill by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency estimates the full expansion of Highway 30 would cost $1.5 billion throughout the course of construction. Federal funding could cover up to 80 percent of the total cost, but will depend on future budgeting decisions made by the state transportation commission.
LSA estimates two lanes will need to be added to approximately 120 miles at an estimated cost of $6.7 million per mile. Four-lane bypasses would need to be constructed for approximately 39.5 miles, costing an estimated $10 million per mile, along with 16 interchanges costing approximately $16.1 million each.
Annual maintenance costs for the full 120 miles is estimated to be approximately $1.7 million per year.
“There is over half a million people living along the (highway) corridor, and it’s actually the only corridor outside Interstate 80 that is growing,” said Rep. Tom Determann, R-Camanche, the bill’s lead sponsor. “Highway 30 has always been recommended as a four-lane corridor; 160 miles of if is four lanes and so we need to finish it.”
Determann said a four-lane divided highway is 60 percent safer than a two-lane highway.
Communities in northern Iowa lobbied for years to make U.S. Highway 20 a four-lane expressway from Sioux City to Dubuque. The first four-lane stretch of Highway 20 was completed in 1958 and the last in 2018 — 60 years later.
Determann said the state has seen economic growth along Highway 20 and is looking to see the same development along Highway 30.
"It’s a win for rural Iowa,“ he told The Gazette, noting the highway spans 12 counties and 39 cities.
Rep. Adam Zabner, D-Iowa City, who voted against the measure, said while he would like to see the highway expanded, he’s “concerned about the potential politicization of what should be routine infrastructure spending.”
The bill now heads to the Iowa Senate, where Determann said a subcommittee is scheduled to consider the bill next week.
Sen. Chris Cournoyer, R-LeClaire, introduced companion legislation in the Senate last year, but it failed to advance out of the chamber.
Cournoyer’s district includes Clinton County.
Determann said he hopes to push the bill through the Senate before a March 15 legislative deadline.
www.thegazette.com
Lawmakers passed House File 2569 by a vote of 87-4. The bill would require the Iowa Transportation Commission to include in its long-range planning plans to make the entire length of Highway 30 four lanes — including a 40-mile stretch between DeWitt and Lisbon, just east of Cedar Rapids, and between Carroll and Ogden in western Iowa.
Economic developers, business leaders and government officials in Clinton County have advocated for the better part of two decades for the state to modify and expand Highway 30 between DeWitt and Lisbon to four lanes.
Representatives with the U.S. Highway 30 Coalition have told lawmakers such a project would spur rural business development, foster population growth, improve roadway safety, lessen congestion on Interstate 80 and match the majority of Highway 30’s cross-state footprint.
Instead of a four-lane layout, the Iowa Department of Transportation’s five-year highway plan calls for changing the current two-lane layout of Highway 30 from Lisbon to Stanwood to a “super-two" configuration that would enable the construction of wider lanes, a hard shoulder and occasional turning and passing lanes.
Work is scheduled to begin for the fiscal year that starts July 1 and ends June 30, 2025, with pavement improvement from east of Lisbon to west of Mechanicsville. Property acquisition for the section of highway west of Mechanicsville to west of Stanwood is scheduled to begin in fiscal year 2025 and construction in FY 2026.
Meanwhile, work is ongoing to finish four-lane construction in Benton County, which is slated to be completed this year, according to the DOT.
Stuart Anderson, director of transportation development for the Iowa DOT, said the DOT decided against a four-lane layout in favor of the “super two” alternative due to cost savings. He said the DOT estimated it would cost 15 to 20 percent of the cost of upgrading to a four-lane highway and wouldn’t require nearly as much property acquisition.
The bill was amended to state the Iowa DOT would not use eminent domain to acquire land necessary to expand two-lane sections of U.S. 30 to four lanes until it has expended “all reasonable alternatives, if the land is a part of century farm or residential real estate property.”
A study conducted by Iowa engineering firm Snyder and Associates, and paid for by the Highway 30 Coalition, estimated it would cost more than $636 million to expand a 45-mile stretch of the highway to four lanes between Carroll and Ogden and a 44-mile stretch from Lisbon to DeWitt over a 10-year period, and the estimated financial benefit to the state would be more than $770 million.
Roughly 160 miles of the 331-mile-long highway in Iowa is four lanes. The study did not include the cost to expand the stretch of highway west of Carroll.
U.S. Route 30 — often called the Lincoln Highway — spans cost-to-coast from Atlantic City, N.J., to Astoria, Ore.
A fiscal analysis of the bill by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency estimates the full expansion of Highway 30 would cost $1.5 billion throughout the course of construction. Federal funding could cover up to 80 percent of the total cost, but will depend on future budgeting decisions made by the state transportation commission.
LSA estimates two lanes will need to be added to approximately 120 miles at an estimated cost of $6.7 million per mile. Four-lane bypasses would need to be constructed for approximately 39.5 miles, costing an estimated $10 million per mile, along with 16 interchanges costing approximately $16.1 million each.
Annual maintenance costs for the full 120 miles is estimated to be approximately $1.7 million per year.
“There is over half a million people living along the (highway) corridor, and it’s actually the only corridor outside Interstate 80 that is growing,” said Rep. Tom Determann, R-Camanche, the bill’s lead sponsor. “Highway 30 has always been recommended as a four-lane corridor; 160 miles of if is four lanes and so we need to finish it.”
Determann said a four-lane divided highway is 60 percent safer than a two-lane highway.
Communities in northern Iowa lobbied for years to make U.S. Highway 20 a four-lane expressway from Sioux City to Dubuque. The first four-lane stretch of Highway 20 was completed in 1958 and the last in 2018 — 60 years later.
Determann said the state has seen economic growth along Highway 20 and is looking to see the same development along Highway 30.
"It’s a win for rural Iowa,“ he told The Gazette, noting the highway spans 12 counties and 39 cities.
Rep. Adam Zabner, D-Iowa City, who voted against the measure, said while he would like to see the highway expanded, he’s “concerned about the potential politicization of what should be routine infrastructure spending.”
The bill now heads to the Iowa Senate, where Determann said a subcommittee is scheduled to consider the bill next week.
Sen. Chris Cournoyer, R-LeClaire, introduced companion legislation in the Senate last year, but it failed to advance out of the chamber.
Cournoyer’s district includes Clinton County.
Determann said he hopes to push the bill through the Senate before a March 15 legislative deadline.
Iowa House passes bill to expand all of Highway 30 to four lanes
The bill would require the Iowa Transportation Commission to include in its long-range planning plans to make the entire length of Highway 30 four lanes — including a 40-mile stretch between DeWitt and Lisbon, just east of Cedar Rapids, and between Carroll and Ogden in western Iowa.
www.thegazette.com
