Northwest Iowa — Most of the summer road construction projects on state highways have wrapped up for the year as the days are getting colder, and next year shouldn’t be too busy with construction.
Dakin Schultz, a transportation planner for the Iowa Department of Transportation tells us about one project that is still going on — in the city of Rock Rapids. He says while the work has been on Highway 9 — the town’s main street — in the past weeks, it is also to include Highway 75 from the junction south to the old water tower at South Seventh Avenue.
Schultz tells us the dowel-bar retrofit is something they are doing to bring the concrete pavement, which was poured in 1974, into compliance with current methods of construction, which will mean a better ride and a longer-lasting roadway.
According to Schultz, the majority of the surface will remain the pavement poured in the 1970s, with the exception of areas they needed to patch.
The hope is to get the patching and dowel bar retrofit finished this year, but Schultz admits that there will probably be some carryover work into 2022.
He tells us that there really isn’t anything major planned on the highways in Lyon, O’Brien, Osceola, and Sioux Counties in 2022. But there will be some work in Hartley on 18 and south of the Paullina turn on Highway 59. However, he says for those that like to travel to the Iowa Great Lakes, there will be a project there. Althogh, due to the high traffic Highway 71 sees there during the summer, they’ll wait until fall 2022 to start that one.
We talked to Schultz about the Sioux Center Highway 75 project. He says while the DOT is providing a large part of the funding for the reconstruction, widening, and adding of turn lanes on 75, the City of Sioux Center is in charge of the development, design, and construction of the project. Schultz says the DOT is providing funding of $18-19 million dollars. He says bid letting on the project should happen about a year from now, with construction slated to begin in 2023.
