Road construction season starts across state

AREA — When the weather gets warmer, it seems as if the orange cones on the roads come out in full force.
Locally, the City of Harlan will be completing an over $1.4 million dollar project this summer. These improvements include concrete work with curb/gutter and ADA crosswalks that may begin as soon as late April, as well as 3” asphalt mill/overlay may begin in late June/early July, according to City Administrator Gene Gettys.
“This large of a project was made possible due to a USDA grant for $500,000 of the planned work,” he said.
Scott Suhr, Iowa Department of Transportation district transportation planner, provided an overview of statewide projects.
“We’ve got a project on Highway 59, from Iowa 44 in Harlan to the Crawford County line, and that will be a resurfacing project that will take place this summer,” he said.
“Once we start at 59, we’ll have flagger pilot cars for that,” Suhr said. “Depending on the project they can last two to four months. They are planning on being complete yet this summer. “On Iowa 44 over the Mosquito Creek there’s an overlay project, I believe it’s already started. We have a resurfacing project that’s actually in Harrison County but near the Shelby County line, and that is on 191 from I-880 north to Persia.”
Suhr said there are paving marking projects that will be taking place on I-80 this year, but there will not be a lot of traffic delays.
“In Council Bluffs, we’re kind of finishing up around the 480-Broadway area and we’re starting to work on the Madison Avenue area and that will take about a year to complete,” he said.
Further east in Dallas County is a project on the Raccoon River bridges.
“We started it a little over a year ago, and the bridges are done,” Suhr said. “We’re going to be doing the grading and paving for the eastbound lanes and then we’ll begin working on the westbound lanes.”
He suggested using 511ia.org.
“It’s an awesome tool to use whether it is for winter driving conditions or daily commutes or planning a vacation,” he said.
Current detours in the immediate area, we are showing the closure at Portsmouth at 44,” he said. “There’s a detour in place at 191 North Panama, Panama east on F32 and then south on County Road M16 back to 44. It’s a little bit of a detour on that one.
There are temporary traffic signals set up at the intersection of 44 and 173.