Notes on 2025-29 Iowa highway plan
Here's what could be coming to a road near you
Iowa’s five-year transportation plan for fiscal years 2025-29 was approved June 11. Those years are used in this article, but construction can begin as early as the second half of the previous calendar year.
This is the last plan to include a separate list of projects funded with the increased gas tax revenue that started in 2015. The Iowa Legislature eliminated the requirement to make this list in this year’s session. Completion of four-lane US 61 in southeast Iowa is among the projects singled out as being funded with this revenue.
Here are some projects to take note of.
Interstates
I-29:
The south side of Sergeant Bluff will see significant changes in 2026. A bridge will be built over the interstate near 235th Street for the upcoming Southbridge Interchange. Woodbury County is paying for construction of the other roads. Just north of this future exit, the original northbound rest area will be removed. The southbound rest area, which was built in 2000 and among the first replaced in the state, will be closed but not demolished — the plan specifically says “remove ramps.” The building itself is close to Port Neal Road. Perhaps it could be repurposed.
The northbound rest area south of Onawa will be upgraded in 2026-27.
The IA 175 interchange, whose plans were released in April, will be reconstructed in 2026. A replacement bridge for IA 175 will be built beside the existing one. The diamond ramps will intersect 175 closer to the bridge.
I-80:
Is being upgraded to six lanes in West Des Moines through 2026
Is being upgraded to six lanes from the east end of Iowa City to West Branch in 2025. That’s a conclusion to already occurring work.
IA 21 interchange will be rebuilt in 2026-28
US 169 interchange will be rebuilt in 2028-29 and could extend into 2030
IA 149 interchange will be rebuilt in 2027-29
Middle Road interchange in Bettendorf will be reconstructed in 2026-27 and be converted to a diamond. Middle Road just south of I-80 is gaining a sports complex and commercial development (and roundabouts).
The west mixmaster will have changes made to it in 2027-28, namely a new ramp from southbound I-35 to eastbound I-235, but is flagged as underfunded. That comes after a different big project will convert the Hickman Road exit to a diverging diamond and add lanes between University and Douglas avenues.
Lane expansion on the east side of the northeast mixmaster continues through 2027.
The eastbound rest area near Mitchellville will be replaced in 2028-29, long after the westbound counterpart was upgraded.
The Madison Avenue interchange in Council Bluffs, the very last part of the decade-long Council Bluffs Interstate System project, will be finished soon, although it’s listed as an I-29 project.
Work on replacing the Mississippi River bridge will start in 2028.
Six-laning I-35 from Ankeny to north of IA 210 is scheduled for 2026, and from there to south of US 30 in 2028-29.
In Warren County, the northbound lanes of I-35 from North River to Badger Creek will be replaced in 2026. The southbound lanes have already been replaced there, shifted over to create a wider median. Similarly, the northbound lanes of I-35 from IA 92 to North River will be replaced in 2028.
I-380’s six-lane upgrade through North Liberty will be happening in 2025-26 — earth-moving started in May — and the six-lane upgrade through and including the Eastern Iowa Airport exit area is in 2025.
The I-380 Boyson Road exit in Hiawatha will be turned into a diverging diamond interchange in 2025.
Upgrades
On US 30 in Story County, following completion of the County Road R70 exit this year, the Skunk River bridge area west of I-35 will be rebuilt/expanded in 2025-27 and an interchange on the west end of Nevada will be built in 2027-28.
The US 61 Mediapolis bypass will be built in 2025, four-laned from there to IA 78 in 2026, and four-laned from IA 78 to IA 92 — the last gap — in 2027-29.
The IA 58 interchange at Greenhill Road, which had renderings released earlier this year, is planned for 2028.
IA 141 southeast of Granger between the IA 17 and IA 415 exits is being modified so the 121st Street intersection is no longer a through intersection. That will be accompanied by median closures and building of nearby streets.
The US 30 Missouri Valley bypass is programmed for 2027-29.
The US 63 bypass to the northwest of Oskaloosa will be finished in 2027.
Notable bridge work
The cover of the document gives a final view of the Black Hawk Bridge in Lansing, which is being replaced. It was reopened in May after a shutdown to repair some shifting piers.
The number of bridges rated “poor” in the state highway system has been reduced from 256 in 2006 to 23 in 2024, according to an overview in the document.
Bridges for IA 2 over the West Nishnabotna River and its overflow east of Sidney in 2028 seem like just two of the many bridge rehab/replacement/overlay projects in the plan, but they’ll cost $2 million, there is no shoulder on the existing ones, and the overflow bridge is usually over dry land!
The IA 149 (formerly US 63) bridge in Ottumwa is scheduled for a $34 million rehabilitation in 2029. The bridge, which turns 60 years old this year, has “the longest pretensioned, pre-stressed concrete beams used in Iowa.”
The Gordon Drive Viaduct in Sioux City is scheduled to be replaced starting in 2029, but related work will start two years earlier. The project has an overall $166 million cost in the plan so far, but is noted as being underfunded. KTIV in April and May mentioned the Sioux City City Council’s sifting through of side-street options. Video from a KCAU story on April 22 has extensive footage of the viaduct and Lewis Boulevard interchange as it is now. Another KCAU story a week later showed that the replacement will be built immediately south of the existing viaduct and the interchange at the east end would become an at-grade intersection. (The news stories say work could begin in 2028, which is consistent with the FY29 label in the five-year plan.) The documents that council members are looking at in the news story could be from options released in late 2022.
The bridge on the short US 30/US 59/IA 141 multiplex in Denison will be replaced in 2029.
Removal of the US 218 bridge just south of the E44 junction in Benton County, once planned for 2023, has been pushed all the way to 2029.
Miscellaneous
Under “Iowa Statewide Transportation Alternatives Program Projects” is $1.6 million for “Bentonsport Pedestrian Bridge Rehabilitation.” That refers to the 1882/1903 bridge across the Des Moines River that has been closed since 1985.
The intersection of D14 and P56 at the southeast corner of the Fort Dodge airport is going to be turned into a roundabout. So will the intersection of Viking Road and Prairie Parkway in Cedar Falls, near the southeast corner of the shopping area that has developed there.
Dysart will be getting speed feedback signs. The “traffic safety improvement project” map dot is on Traer, but the Dysart city clerk confirmed the plan.
US 75 through Hinton, which has that route’s only stoplight between the Nebraska state line and Sioux Center, will be rebuilt in 2028.
US 63 from Toledo to IA 96 will be rebuilt in 2026, and from Traer to Hudson in 2027. A “vision document” in 2022 outlined how this corridor, extending south to US 6, can be turned into a “super-2” road, which includes extra passing and turn lanes.
US 30 from the east end of the four-lane to Stanwood, and also near Clarence, will have pavement rehabilitation in 2025.
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