”I think I can sum up today in one word — finally,” Gregg told about 400 people packed into a hotel ballroom Friday afternoon as traffic zipped by on the new highway nearby.

”To say that this day is a long time coming is an understatement,” he added.

Gregg spoke before ceremonial ribbons were snipped along the side of U.S. Highway 20 in Holstein to mark the opening of the final four-lane section in Ida and Woodbury counties that completed a widening project started in 1958.

That final section opened to traffic on Wednesday. The U.S. 20 Corridor Association and the Iowa Department of Transportation hosted the event Friday at Boulders Inn and Suites to celebrate the final completion of the project.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
Bob Singer, first vice president of the U.S. 20 Corridor Association, at left, stops to talk with state Rep. Helen Miller, D-Fort Dodge, and Sherry Washington, right, of Fort Dodge.

Gregg described it as a ”glorious day for northwest Iowa.”

What ultimately made the finished highway possible, he said, was a 10-cent per gallon gasoline tax increase approved in 2015 that generated an additional $200 million a year for Iowa’s roads and bridges.

But there was also a lot of work by many people that also ensured success, he said.

”We’re inspired by the passion of those of you here today and also the passion of those who played a role in this project and maybe aren’t around to see it through to completion, but you know made a big, big difference,” he said.

”Your advocacy made a difference,” he added. ”And you know what, this project will make a difference, too. We’ll be able to move our goods more efficiently and get our products to the world.”

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg speaks during the ribbon cutting in Holstein.

Gregg was the top state official at Friday’s event. Gov. Kim Reynolds was not present because she was meeting with Vice President Mike Pence.

U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, was the top federal official present. The westernmost portions of the highway are in the Fourth Congressional District that he represents. King also lobbied for the highway’s completion when he was a state senator in the late 1990s.

According to King, northwest Iowa was for decades the largest area in the upper Midwest that was not traversed by a four-lane highway.

Fort Dodge was a major source of support for the effort to make the highway four-lanes wide all across the state, the congressman said.

”We had great help out of Fort Dodge, some of the best people who ever worked on this,” King said. ”And when Highway 20 got to Fort Dodge, I was thinking we’re going to lose those people and their support. But the Fort Dodge people stuck with us even after they had their four-lane highway.”

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
Hundreds of people filled the conference room at the Boulder Inn & Suites in Holstein for the speeches before the ribbon cutting.

King singled out two Fort Dodge residents, Floyd Magnusson and V. H. ”Buck” Boekelman. Magnusson was a Webster County supervisor and president of the U.S. 20 Corridor Association. Boekelman was a member of the association who was known for attending every Iowa Transportation Commission meeting. Both men died before the highway expansion was completed.

”Those two folks were with us every step of the way,” King said. ”They are with us in spirit today.”

Other Fort Dodge residents who played key roles in pushing for the four-lane highway were Democratic state Rep. Helen Miller; Republican state Sen. Tim Kraayenbrink; former Democratic state senators Daryl Beall and Rod Halvorson; Bob Singer, a former Webster County supervisor and first vice president of the U.S. 20 Corridor Association; the late Ed Augustine, who led the highway effort in the 1980s; and Steve Hoesel, a member of the association.

King also acknowledged former U.S. Rep. Tom Latham, a Republican who served the Fort Dodge area for a decade and was a key advocate for the four-lane project. Latham attended Friday’s celebration.

Shirley Phillips, who succeeded Magnusson as the association’s president, recounted the ups and downs the group experienced over the years.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
The ceremonial scissors met with an unfortunate accident during the ribbon cutting Friday as U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron was using them to cut the red ribbon to officallly open the last section of U.S. Highway 20 in Holstein.

”Either you get bitter or you get better,” she said. ”It’s that simple.”

The association, she said, got better, and improved its efforts.

”Frankly, we just became more tenacious,” she said. ”The one thing we didn’t do was stop. We found it hard to take no for an answer.”

She recognized association members Ann Trimble-Ray, Early Mayor Sharon Irwin and Dave Ehlers for their work.

Charese Yanney, a member of the Iowa Transportation Commission, said that a crash at the intersection of U.S. highways 20 and 59 near Holstein killed four college students on Nov. 30, 1959. She said her father, Jim Yanney, began lobbying for a four-lane U.S. Highway 20 because of that crash.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
A truck moving a section of wind turbine tower drives east along the most recently completed section of U.S. Highway 20 in Holstein Friday afternoon as the ribbon for the final section of four lane highway was cut nearby.

Yanney said that when she was first appointed to the Transportation Commission, she had to vote to remove the project from the state’s plans due to a lack of money. The gas tax increase solved that problem, she said.

”I’m so proud that our Republicans from northwest Iowa did vote for that gas tax because that’s what put us over the edge,” she said.

She thanked Phillips for her work.

”We wouldn’t have gotten it done if it wasn’t for you,” Yanney said.

Mark Lowe, the director of the state Department of Transportation, recited the words that no parent wants to hear while on a long car trip with their children: ”Are we there yet?”

”Well, for our U.S. Highway 20 journey, we are there,” he said.