Progress has U.S. 20 on track
Key environmental report gives additional miles a green lightBy BILL SHEA, Messenger staff writer
SAC CITY - Construction crews carving out a new route for a four-lane U.S. Highway 20 in Calhoun and Webster counties are making good progress, according to a state transportation engineer.
That's welcome news to anyone frustrated by slow traffic on the two-lane road. And it comes amid other encouraging signs for advocates of a wider highway.
Last month the Iowa Transportation Commission approved a plan that will add even more miles of four-lane road by widening the route to U.S. Highway 71 near Early in Sac County in 2013.
And recently, the state received a key environmental approval that clears the way for eventually widening the highway between Early and Moville in Woodbury County.
That means there is some form of progress on every mile of the last remaining two-lane stretch, which is between Moorland and Moville. Filling that gap with four lanes of pavement will finish a project that started 40 years ago.
''It's a happy time,'' U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, said Friday.
''We have made a lot of progress together,'' he told members of the U.S. 20 Corridor Association at a meeting in Sac City.
King represents the 5th Congressional District, which includes most of the remaining two-lane section. He pledged to do whatever he could to get more federal money for the project.
Tony Lazarowicz, an assistant district engineer for the Iowa Department of Transportation, gave the group a summary of the work that's under way and what's next on the construction calendar.
The earthmoving in Webster County is 90 percent done, he said. In Calhoun County, it's 80 percent complete, he added.
Lazarowicz said a contract for paving the section in Webster and Calhoun counties will be awarded in the fall of 2009. That section is expected to open to traffic in 2010.
Next year, the earthmovers will start on a stretch between Iowa Highway 4 near Rockwell City and Calhoun County Road N33. Paving there is expected to start in 2010, according to Lazarowicz.
A piece of the highway between Calhoun County Road N33 and Sac County Road N14 is scheduled to be widened by 2012.
Finally, the segment between Sac County Road N14 and U.S. Highway 71 is expected to open in the fall of 2013.
''I think things are progressing well,'' Lazarowicz said.
He also reported that the Federal Highway Administration has issued a Finding of No Significant Impact for the planned highway section between Moville and U.S. Highway 71. He said that means the federal agency determined that there are no big environmental issues that would stop the project.
With that finding in hand, Lazarowicz said the Department of Transportation can begin surveying the ground there so that design work can proceed. He said the surveying would be finished sometime next summer.
Contact Bill Shea at (515) 573-2141 or bshea@messengernews.net
