Northwest Iowa — The ground is getting warmer. And road construction crews are already busy. But the construction season won’t be as busy as some others have been in northwest Iowa.
Dakin Schultz, a transportation planner for the Iowa Department of Transportation tells us about one project that is again underway that the contractor wasn’t able to finish last fall — in the city of Rock Rapids.
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.
Schultz tells us that there really isn’t anything major planned on the highways in Lyon, O’Brien, Osceola, and Sioux Counties during this construction season. 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. Although, due to the high traffic Highway 71 sees there during the summer, they’ll wait until fall 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 in November, with construction slated to begin in 2023.
