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Quick HWY 30 Question

joefrog said:
No. I-80 is an overpacked mess. We need 30 to be 4 lane at least to Boone, and Highway 20 needs to be 4 lane from border to border. It isn't just about the average driver, it is about shipping things too. NW Iowa is a dead zone with no 4 lanes there, and it is hurting Iowa businesses. The powers that be want to keep all the cross state traffic coming through Des Moines, and it needs to be stopped.
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We used to live in Humboldt, north of Fort Dodge, and the widening of highway 20 in Iowa has been talked about for many years. At one time it was on the 10-year plan, to give you an idea of its relative importance to the urban folks at DOT and the statehouse.
 
Widening highways is all fine and good, but they are expensive to replace and maintain, and there just isn't enough traffic in Iowa to justify a lot of them, IMO.

NW Iowa is a dead zone not because of traffic, but because it's NW Iowa. SW Iowa is also a dead zone. As is SE Iowa. It has nothing to do with roads. The middle of Nebraska is also a dead zone, and it's got interstate 80 running smack through the middle of it. Roads don't generate business, population generates business.
 
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jumbopackage said:
Widening highways is all fine and good, but they are expensive to replace and maintain, and there just isn't enough traffic in Iowa to justify a lot of them, IMO.

NW Iowa is a dead zone not because of traffic, but because it's NW Iowa. SW Iowa is also a dead zone. As is SE Iowa. It has nothing to do with roads. The middle of Nebraska is also a dead zone, and it's got interstate 80 running smack through the middle of it. Roads don't generate business, population generates business.
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Explain how the population of Walcott generates business at the Iowa 80 truckstop? Roads generate business.
 
Haverhill said:
Explain how the population of Walcott generates business at the Iowa 80 truckstop? Roads generate business.
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Ever seen the rest of Walcott?

One truckstop, no matter how big, in the middle of nowhere is not a robust economy.

Drive on US 20 between Waterloo and Fort Dodge and see how many cities are thriving off of the highway.
 
jumbopackage said:
NW Iowa is a dead zone not because of traffic, but because it's NW Iowa. SW Iowa is also a dead zone. As is SE Iowa. It has nothing to do with roads. The middle of Nebraska is also a dead zone, and it's got interstate 80 running smack through the middle of it. Roads don't generate business, population generates business.
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Not exactly true.

When a company considers locating in Iowa, a city can offer a lot of incentives to put jobs in their town. It's especially attractive if the average wage for the area is fairly low.

But if there isn't clear access to a four lane highway for logistics purposes, most companies won't even consider the location. The area is simply strangled economically.

Take Muscatine (my hometown), for example.

US 61 runs from Davenport to Muscatine, four lane through the entire county. Eventually, 61 hits St. Louis--not only another market, but a transportation hub.

However, when the push was on to make 61 four lane, Louisa County couldn't come up with the matching funds. So 61 is strangled at the county line (nearly to Burlington), and companies don't really consider shipping that route en masse.

I'll also add that Muscatine has a to negotiate some of the turns on county roads that are the more direct routes (though Moscow). Slowing laboriously through West Liberty is hardly preferable, either.

So while HNI, Bandag and the other industries in Muscatine might hope for better transportation links, they make do with what they've got, and are thankful for the Muscatine-Davenport link. And watch that side of town flourish.
 
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Is there a way to get **** off the naughty list? I understand blocking the homophone which has a negative connotation, but **** is a handy word to use when referring to the NE Iowa town or flood control.

We used to live in Wisconsin (my wife and I both have family in Ames) and I was very happy when the Hwy 20 four-lane was complete from Dubuque all the way past I-35. Now we live in CR, so I'm hoping the same thing will happen to 30 since we'll probably be driving it roundtrip 12-15 times per year.
 
Aclone said:
Not exactly true.

When a company considers locating in Iowa, a city can offer a lot of incentives to put jobs in their town. It's especially attractive if the average wage for the area is fairly low.

But if there isn't clear access to a four lane highway for logistics purposes, most companies won't even consider the location. The area is simply strangled economically.

Take Muscatine (my hometown), for example.

US 61 runs from Davenport to Muscatine, four lane through the entire county. Eventually, 61 hits St. Louis--not only another market, but a transportation hub.

However, when the push was on to make 61 four lane, Louisa County couldn't come up with the matching funds. So 61 is strangled at the county line (nearly to Burlington), and companies don't really consider shipping that route en masse.

I'll also add that Muscatine has a to negotiate some of the turns on county roads that are the more direct routes (though Moscow). Slowing laboriously through West Liberty is hardly preferable, either.

So while HNI, Bandag and the other industries in Muscatine might hope for better transportation links, they make do with what they've got, and are thankful for the Muscatine-Davenport link. And watch that side of town flourish.
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So THAT's why Fort Dodge, Webster City and every small town along I-35 and I-90 is flourishing. I get it now. I mean things are so much better just across the border in Minnesota.

There are plenty of parts of the US that already have low wage areas with plenty of highway access. I don't see the need to expand that in Iowa and lay the bill for maintaining it on the taxpayers who see little to no benefit from it.
 
mred said:
Is there a way to get **** off the naughty list? I understand blocking the homophone which has a negative connotation, but **** is a handy word to use when referring to the NE Iowa town or flood control.

We used to live in Wisconsin (my wife and I both have family in Ames) and I was very happy when the Hwy 20 four-lane was complete from Dubuque all the way past I-35. Now we live in CR, so I'm hoping the same thing will happen to 30 since we'll probably be driving it roundtrip 12-15 times per year.
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Growing up in Aplington, **** has always been a naughty word.
 
jumbopackage said:
There are plenty of parts of the US that already have low wage areas with plenty of highway access. I don't see the need to expand that in Iowa and lay the bill for maintaining it on the taxpayers who see little to no benefit from it.
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If we're just talking Highway 30, that would take pressure off of I-80, and not only reduce (immense) maintenance and replacement costs, but less traffic means better safety as well. Seems to me that's cost effective to taxpayers right there.

For that matter, how long has 30 been four lane south of Ames? Thirty years? It's not difficult to see how that highway access has changed the shape of the town and surrounding areas, especially over the past ten or fifteen years. These things don't change quickly, but they do change.

US 20, I believe, has only been four lane, Fort Dodge eastward, for about ten years now. Has it been that long?
 
Aclone said:
Once upon a time, US 30 was supposed to be four lane from Chicago to Omaha by 2010. I don't see that happening.
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If I remember right, both 20 and 30 were approved to be 4-lane through the whole state back in 1999. Of course approval and actually finishing the work are two different things.

On a side note...got busted by a state trooper last week going east on 30 just west of Marshalltown. Was going 65 and already in the 4-lane, but he was sitting where it was still a 55 zone. Saw him in plenty of time but forgot that you had to go a little ways before it hits 65. He was nice enough to knock it down to 60 in a 55. :biglaugh: Why even bother???
 
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Aclone said:
If we're just talking Highway 30, that would take pressure off of I-80, and not only reduce (immense) maintenance and replacement costs, but less traffic means better safety as well. Seems to me that's cost effective to taxpayers right there.

For that matter, how long has 30 been four lane south of Ames? Thirty years? It's not difficult to see how that highway access has changed the shape of the town and surrounding areas, especially over the past ten or fifteen years. These things don't change quickly, but they do change.

US 20, I believe, has only been four lane, Fort Dodge eastward, for about ten years now. Has it been that long?
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While US-30 between Cedar Rapids and Boone would MAYBE help I-80, but it very well might not. The sum total of people who would take US-30 instead of the interstate would be pople coming from an area south of US-20, and from Ankeny north. That's basically Ames, maybe Ankeny (I'd say you'd get half going to I-80 and half up to US-30) and small towns in between. That's not a significant amount of traffic, IMO. Probably less than the traffic between Fort Dodge and Waterloo. Nobody is going to get off of I-80, drive up to US-30, and then drive back onto I-80 heading west (or vice-versa heading east). And I can't imagine many people drive all the way down to I-80 just to drive back up north to Cedar Rapids.

Ames is changing because it's got a large population (for Iowa) and people want to go to Des Moines and Ankeny which ALSO have large populations. The Des Moines - Ankeny - Ames area is being helped by the highways, sure, but they are just enablers, not the reason for the growth. US-30 is 4 lanes between Ames and Boone as well, but you don't see nearly the growth between those two.

US-20 has been 4 lanes at least between Fort Dodge and I-35 for at least 15 years I'd say. I know at least 10 for sure.
 
jumbopackage said:
While US-30 between Cedar Rapids and Boone would MAYBE help I-80, but it very well might not.
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CR has a lot of heavy industry that could easily use US 30 westbound in that case. And likely would.

But the long term scenario is to have 30 connected from DeWitt to Omaha, which would mean Chicago to Omaha (or, technically, Missouri Valley/US 29). Two large hubs, with an alternate connecting route. In effect, an eight lane highway--twenty miles apart.

Of course, even being complete as far as Boone would be effective, offering an alternate route to I-35 South/Kansas City.
 
liquorlyles said:
If I remember right, both 20 and 30 were approved to be 4-lane through the whole state back in 1999. Of course approval and actually finishing the work are two different things.

On a side note...got busted by a state trooper last week going east on 30 just west of Marshalltown. Was going 65 and already in the 4-lane, but he was sitting where it was still a 55 zone. Saw him in plenty of time but forgot that you had to go a little ways before it hits 65. He was nice enough to knock it down to 60 in a 55. :biglaugh: Why even bother???
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Every cop I've ever gotten a speeding ticket from (three) was "nice enough" to knock it down by 5 MPH when I was supposedly going 10 MPH over the limit. So in my experience, that's pretty common.
 
Aclone said:
CR has a lot of heavy industry that could easily use US 30 westbound in that case. And likely would.

But the long term scenario is to have 30 connected from DeWitt to Omaha, which would mean Chicago to Omaha (or, technically, Missouri Valley/US 29). Two large hubs, with an alternate connecting route. In effect, an eight lane highway--twenty miles apart.

Of course, even being complete as far as Boone would be effective, offering an alternate route to I-35 South/Kansas City.
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Why on earth would anyone choose to drive on US-30 all that way? Even if it's 4 lanes, it's still not interstate. If you're coming from Chicago to Omaha, you take 88 down to 80 and then 80 across.

I grew up on a different stretch of US-30, and I couldn't wait to get off of it and onto the interstate when I was traveling.

I'm sure there would be SOME traffic that would use US-30 instead of I-80, but I think you'd be money ahead to just add more lanes to I-80.
 
jumbopackage said:
US-20 has been 4 lanes at least between Fort Dodge and I-35 for at least 15 years I'd say. I know at least 10 for sure.
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You may be right, but 20 has only been 4 lane from Western Cedar Falls to I-35 for about 7.5 years. It was finished in 2001.

I know, as I'm from the area and always had to take county roads to I-35 until 20 was finished when I was in school. I graduated in 2002.
 
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