SAC CITY – At 9 a.m. Monday, Iowa Highway 196 will close until Thanksgiving.

A major reconstruction of the highway, which runs approximately 10 miles between U.S. Highway 20 and U.S. Highway 71 in Sac County, is planned, including replacement of bridges over the Raccoon River and Cedar Creek.

Once the $25.3 million project is completed, however, the 80-year-old highway will cease to be.

Rather, U.S. Highway 71 will be rerouted over the new road north to U.S. Highway 20.

Meeting the U.S. 20 expressway at the interchange northeast of Sac City, U.S. 71 will then be colocated with U.S. 20 west to the current U.S. 71 interchange north of Early.

Though Highway 196 will be deleted from the state rolls, the project will create a new state highway – Iowa Highway 471 – from the present segment of U.S. 71 between Early and Iowa Highway 175 west of Lake View.

Though “orphaned” segments of state highways are often turned over to local authorities – for example, old U.S. Highway 20 in Calhoun and Sac counties, which was divested by the state when the U.S. 20 expressway opened in those counties – that will not happen in this case, according to Dakin Schultz, a planner for the Iowa Department of Transportation.

The new Highway 471 will be fully signed, he said.

“There are currently no plans for the road to be anything other than a primary highway,” he said.

During construction, a posted detour will follow Sac County Road M54 between U.S. 20 and U.S. 71. Peterson Contractors Inc. of Reinbeck and Godbersen-Smith Construction Co. of Ida Grove were awarded contracts for the project, Schultz said.