Spirit Lake, Iowa — A major road upgrade in the Iowa Great Lakes region is ahead of schedule.
Iowa DOT engineer Darwin Bishop says the goal is for out-of-town motorists on Highway 71 to think everything looks normal during tourism season, starting on Memorial Day.
The project began LAST spring, replacing Highway 71 pavement and some sidewalks in Okoboji and Arnolds Park.
While the highway should look fairly normal by Memorial Day, all of the road construction in the area will wrap up this summer and should be done by Labor Day. Bishop says they’ll replace the adjacent sod in the spring of 2025. Highway 71 is the main thoroughfare through the Great Lakes. According to Vacation Okoboji, cell phone data indicates over 180 thousand tourists visited the area last July – about a quarter of them stayed more than six days.
