Traffic Safety Improvement Program money awarded
State Center intersection, project near Pekin school on list
On Dec. 10, the Iowa Transportation Commission allocated $8.6 million for 35 projects across the state from the Traffic Safety Improvement Program. This money, topping out at $500,000 per project, is for fiscal year 2026. The state put out the list of recipients and the full cost of each project in a press release. Here is a breakdown of those projects.
‘Reduced-conflict intersection’ at State Center
As the US 30 expressway has been extended across central and eastern Iowa, traffic volumes have increased. On the south side of State Center, a very short stretch of four-lane road original to the 1963 relocation preceded construction of the expressway in 2010-11. Due to that, there isn’t enough space between the eastbound and westbound lanes for a large vehicle to stop in the middle of a turn.
According to state crash statistics, in 2019-23 there were 15 crashes with 1 fatality here. Three were attributed to “driver distraction: inattentive/lost in thought” and five more to failure to yield either from a stop sign or while turning left.
The city and state held meetings in August 2023 and February 2024 to figure out solutions. A KCCI story in July 2023 said the biggest issue was eastbound 30 traffic turning left/north into State Center. A drop in the speed limit for such a short distance would likely be ineffective, and an interchange would be very expensive.
Enter the “reduced-conflict intersection”, so named because it reduces the number of “conflict points” between vehicles. It’s also called a restricted crossing U-turn (RCUT).
Traffic on the side road cannot go straight through, and must turn right-left-right in rapid succession.
A driver on the side road that wants to turn left must turn right before making a U-turn. This would apply to the State Center-to-Marshalltown turn.
A driver on the four-lane road/major arterial can turn left like at a normal intersection. A raised median both prevents through traffic and separates left-turning vehicles.
It’s different from a “Michigan left” in that the latter, popular in that state, bans left turns in any direction at the center of the intersection. All traffic wishing to turn left must make U-turns.
The RCI/RCUT is a new name for a design that received hot opposition when it was offered in the past. In 2009, it was called a “J-turn” and proposed for the intersection of US 65 and Iowa 330. “The public was not receptive to this proposed solution because it created out-of-distance travel and was perceived as a temporary fix,” the DOT said in 2015 as it moved forward with an interchange. In 2013, the DOT proposed a J-turn at the intersection of US 30 and US 218 and it was shot down with equal vigor in Benton County.
Since then, though, the first RCI has been built in Iowa. It’s southeast of Fort Dodge at a truck stop newly built on US 20. (It’s unfortunate the truck stop wasn’t built at the existing interchange 2 miles west.)
State Center has public buy-in on the RCI. “After seeking public input and all available options with respect for budgetary and geographic considerations, the creation of a reduced conflict intersection is supported by both the community and local law enforcement,” State Center Police Chief Jon Thomas said in a letter included with the application to get $500,000 in TSIP money for the $2 million overall cost.
There is a wild card in this plan. Half a mile east, another paved road intersects US 30. Some drivers who get sick of turning right to go left may instead attempt to turn left at this other spot.
Elsewhere, a similar “directional median” will be installed in Davenport at the intersection of Kimberly Road and 36th Street. Drivers on 36th who want to go straight or left will have to turn right on Kimberly and U-turn at the next intersection.
Pekin (Packwood) school road
Jefferson County is being awarded $222,986 as part of a $2.6 million project to pave 110th Street in the northern part of the county from County Road V43 north of Packwood west to the railroad crossing near Pekin Community High School. This safety grant covers paved shoulders, guardrails, rumble strips, and pavement markings.
Currently, 110th Street is not paved. Money for the overall paving project has been requested by U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks as part of the appropriations bill for the federal departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development. However, as of Tuesday, Congress had passed zero appropriations bills for fiscal year 2025 and needed to pass a continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown Friday night.
Jefferson County also received a grant for paved shoulders and rumble strips on County Road H43 between Libertyville and Fairfield.
Other projects receiving TSIP money
Speed feedback displays (not ticket cameras) by Salem Elementary School and near the city limits of Andrew, Delmar, Elgin, and Unionville. The last said in its request, “We have had many residents install homemade signs in the right of way to try to get drivers’ attention to slow down.”
Roundabouts
Cedar Falls at the intersection of IA 57 and Union Drive (County Road T75), adding to that city’s large collection of roundabouts
Cedar Rapids/Linn County at the skew intersection of Covington and Ellis roads, with construction in 2026
Coralville at the intersection of Heartland Avenue and Commerce Drive at Costco (23 reports of failure to yield from a stop sign in 2020-24)
Lights and signals
Des Moines: Upgrade stoplights at 27 intersections, about half of which are along US 69/SE 14th Street and five more on University Avenue, from the “left turn yield on green” style to a flashing yellow arrow
Sioux City: Larger-size stoplights with retroreflective sheeting at four intersections
Davenport: Stoplight at East 46th Street and Elmore Avenue
Grand Mound: Flashing red lights at the four-way stop of East and Fulton streets
Clinton County: Flashing red lights at the four-way stop of county roads F12 and Z36 at Elvira
Marion County: Flashing red light on County Road G46 at T17 near Harvey, eastbound Business IA 163 at County Road G5T (old IA 102), and on the two directions that don’t have them at the intersection a mile north of that one (Vermeer corner). In addition, “destination lighting” was approved for 13 intersections, most of which do not have any lights and are mostly in a triangle between Knoxville, Pella, and Harvey.
Portable stoplights of the type often used to maintain single-lane traffic on bridges during construction: Cedar/Jackson/Jones counties joint application; Boone/Story counties joint application; Lee County
Shoulder paving and rumble strips
Buchanan County Road W45 south of Aurora
Fayette County Road W51 between County Road C24 and IA 56 — crash statistics list “animal” as the major cause of 14 incidents in 2018-24, many likely involving a variant of the driver shouting “Oh dear”
Henry County Road W55 from Oakland Mills State Park to US 34; a segment south to Salem was funded in 2022 and completed this year
County Road P53’s curves just south of I-80 at the Dallas/Madison county line, including 45-mph curve-speed signs
Three locations in Humboldt County: Curves on County Road P33 south of Rutland, the intersection of county roads C26 and P19 west of Bradgate locally known as “Avery Hill”, and a sharp curve on County Road P56 at the southeast corner of Dakota City locally known as “Volberding Hill”. A request from the county on the traffic-safety side to get flashing chevron beacons at Volberding Hill was not approved.
Miscellaneous
Ames: Dedicated left-turn lanes in all directions at 13th Street & Grand Avenue; the intersection has none now, and there were 27 rear-endings in 2021-23
Ankeny: Expand West First Street north of the John Deere Des Moines Works to five lanes
Bondurant: Reconfigure Grant Street south of its intersection with US 65; the city plans to turn Grant into a curving road and build a park
Des Moines: Convert 19th Street, the northbound side of a one-way pair with Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, from a tight three lanes to two lanes with a “shared use path”
Fort Dodge: Convert North 15th Street from four lanes to three
Sioux City: Convert Dace/Leech avenues from four lanes to three in advance of the Gordon Drive viaduct replacement nearby, which is currently scheduled for the end of the decade
About 20 requests for funding were denied. The most expansive among them was from Marion, which included a 300-page study of the IA 13 corridor in its application for intersection improvements.
This story has been updated to correct the name of U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks.
My other work can be found on my website, Iowa Highway Ends, and its blog.
I am proud to be part of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. If you’re interested in commentary by some of Iowa’s best writers, please follow your choice of Collaborative members: