Tony Guftafson, Assistant Iowa Department of Transportation District 1 engineer, at right, gestures while Eric Wright, DOT?Office of Right of Way, points out a feature of the planned U.S. 30 Expressway - Iowa Highway 21 intersection during a public meeting in Belle Plaine on Tuesday night, June 5. Chronicle photos/John Speer

Motorists eastbound on U.S. Highway 30 from Tama are witnessing the work going into the Expressway project extending it from here to near the Iowa Highway 21 junction located south of Elberon and north of Belle Plaine. Next up will be construction of an interchange including an overpass over Iowa Highway 21 at the Tama-Benton county line and 1.8 miles of Expressway into Benton County.

A look at what is termed “the preferreplan”was provided by the Iowa Department of Transportation at a public meeting at the Belle Plaine Community Center on Tuesday night, June 6.

The interchange is planned to include on-off ramps (see accompanying design photo.)

Tony Gustafson, assistant District 1 DOT engineer, said it is planned to begin work on the interchange beginning later this year with completion in 2021. The bid letting for new overpass is planned for July, 2020.

The costs associated with the project are listed as a total of $1.1 million for right-of-way acquisition and $14.4 million for the bridge, grading, paving, culvert replacement signs and lighting.

DOT illustration

Work to complete about a 10-mile segment of U.S. 30 which will link up the Expressway from Iowa Highway 210 to the U.S. 218 interchange in Benton County is set for 2024 Guftafson told The Chronicle.

He said the traffic count on the highway at Iowa 21 and U.S. 30 in 2017 was 6,400 vehicles daily. The projection for the year 2037 is 8,400 per day including 19 percent trucks which Guftafson commented “is a lot of trucks.”

The Junction of U.S. Highway 30 and Iowa Highway 21 south of Elberon and north of Belle Plaine on Tuesday afternoon, June 5.