Construction by I35 near mile marker 100
- Thread starter Cyrok
- Start date
Replacement rest area for the one taken out in Ankeny.
AKA Gigantic waste of taxpayer money considering there's one 20 miles north of it.
AKA Gigantic waste of taxpayer money considering there's one 20 miles north of it.
What a waste of money. Ankeny is just a few miles south. In a few years will probably be to the elkhart exit. Put it in south or north Iowa .
Rest stops have their place...it's just that 20 miles south of another one is a waste of money for said place. It's great for people with kids or pets who need some time out of a vehicle (the parking lot at Kum & Go isn't quite the same) but the one in Ames is plenty close enough.
Huge waste of money considering there's a rest area 20 miles north, and there's plenty of services available in Ankeny to the south and Ames to the north, both about 10mi away. Think theyre spending about $14mil on them iirc. I mean they might be nice amenities for some, but when we're talking about how we dont have enough money to fix roads and bridges around the state, we need to be spending on those instead of relative luxuries like rest areas.
Along the same lines, what are the new big power poles for between Ames and Ankeny? On the east side of I-35...haven't been strung yet, or at least weren't the last few times I've driven by...
This is what I was trying to say. Fix bridges and roads before putting a rest stop in one of the most heavily populated areas in Iowa. They already took one of the weigh stations down just a couple miles away. What would be so wrong in using that area for a dog walking area?
Ames is running a line down to Mid Americans substation in Ankeny for an additional power source.
And yes, those rest areas are a huge waste of $$$. Rest areas had their place back in the 50's and 60's when interstates first went in, but the private sector has helped take away the needs, especially close to large metro areas. So not only are they taking hundreds on valuable farm acres off the tax role, they are taking away the opportunity for the private sector to provide for the rest stops.
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This may sound stupid, but how much power can Ames Run off a Substation.....aka how much of Ames can run off that supply line?
Or if youre going to be spending the money to build on ramps and off-ramps, have them hook into existing roads so you get another interchange somewhere instead of exits to nowhere but the rest area, and then you build one building instead of 2 separate ones. (or just build rest areas on one of the existing interchanges at MM96 or MM102)
The DOT tried to put one in at 102, but Story County and Huxley fought it. Exit 96 wasn't an option because there is a chance that will go away when (or if) the northeast beltway is put in.
There's a hundred and some odd miles between the rest stop north of Mason City and the rest stop north of Ames and there's another about 50 miles south of Des Moines if I remember right. That's plenty of coverage.
And Albaugh did buy the old rest stop so he could expand Talons of Tuscany. Wish I had enough money I could throw it away on a golf course that loses me a zillion dollars every year.
There are these big ol' vehicles driving down the highway that have a heck of a time maneuvering in a kum and go parking lot and rest areas are the only places they can stop and rest in. I don't agree that they need to spend 14 million on them. A simple building with clean rest rooms is all most people need. The room is actually needed for truck parking. The next time you go by a rest area after 10 pm, take a look at how full the lot is. The only reason trucks park on off ramps over night is because there isn't enough parking anywhere else. I have never met a truck driver that likes parking on off ramps, it's a last resort. Trucking companies pay an *** load of money in road use and fuel taxes, and it don't need to be spent on giant sculptures and oversized buildings.
The DOT's initial plan was to put in a "parking lot" type rest area at the Huxley exit (something similar to a Flying J without gas and food, like they have up north in Dows), but it was met by so much opposition that they scrapped it. If there is demand for a rest area in that corridor, let the private sector meet it. The fact is, there were multiple studies done on this back in 2004 and 2005 when the 36th St interchange in Ankeny and the Alice Rd interchange in Waukee were being planned (the Alice Rd interchange is going to take out the current Waukee rest area), and those studies showed that the rest areas did not need to be replaced. The DOT pretty much ignored the studies and replaced the rest areas.
Im not saying that rest area are not necessary, but that particular one was most definitely not needed.
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