Sanborn, Iowa — Work on Highway 18 continues in northwest Iowa, and so do the delays that always come with road construction.
We talked with the Iowa Department of Transportation District Transportation Planner Dakin Schultz, and he tells us the current status of work on Highway 18.
He says that there is no work planned at this time for either east of the current project or west of Sheldon. However, there will be a bridge replacement over Waterman Creek with a detour west of Hartley.
Meanwhile, folks have been asking when work on Highway 9 would start between Rock Rapids and Little Rock. Earlier this year, Shultz told us that the project had an estimated start date in early July. He tells us about that project.
We also asked Schultz about the status of Highway 75 through Sioux Center. Community leaders there want to turn the highway through town into a five-lane road. Sioux Center City Manager Scott Wynja says that the fact that the project is not on the DOT’s five-year plan has not changed their perspective on moving forward with the project.
He says they continue to work with the district DOT office as well as office staff from the Ames office on the possible next steps and approaches. Wynja says, “The condition of the roadway continues to deteriorate and thus the need for improvement in the near future. They continue to patch and band-aid the road and before they consider any major additional expenditures such as an overlay, we feel — and they agree — there needs to be an improved long-term approach.”
Schultz says too that they are working with the City of Sioux Center and are asking the Iowa Transportation Commission to consider funding the DOT contribution soon. Schultz says that when something is added to the five-year plan it doesn’t mean that it will be five years before it is worked on. He says the Sioux Center Highway 75 project will probably take at least a couple years of planning and prep work, so even if it got added to the next five-year plan it would probably be a couple of years before work got started, but it wouldn’t have to be five years down the road.
