Next week, motorists in Iowa who drive Interstate 35 between Huxley and Ames will see road closures in their area.
I-35 will be closed in both directions between U.S. Highway 30 and Iowa Highway 210 from 10 p.m. until 5 a.m. each night as crews remove the 315th Street Bridge. Work will begin Monday March 25 and stop on Thursday, March 28.
The detour will go around the work zone using Iowa 210, U.S. Highway 69, and U.S. 30.
Dustin Skogerboe, construction engineer at the Iowa Department of Transportation said the bridge demolition will take place at night to take advantage of reduced traffic.
The 315th Street bridge is being removed as part of a project to expand I-35. The new bridge will provide safer traffic flow while the interstate will receive new, wider lanes.
"What we're going to be doing is building new southbound lanes this year," Skogerboe said. "That bridge is too narrow for the future widening, so we've got to demolish it and then build a brand new one with longer span to fit the futuristic plan."
he second stage of the expansion project will start next spring. Skogerboe said Iowa DOT will tear down and reconstruct the Iowa 210 and the 158th Street bridges.
"We're concentrating on southbound now, and all the bridges and interchanges within that section," Skogerboe said. "Then we'll come back in the next couple of years and work on the northbound lanes."
The Iowa DOT said an average of 15,000 cars used the 20-mile stretch of interstate between Ames and Ankeny every day in 1985. By 2017, an average of 44,000 to 48,000 vehicles traveled that segment, and the DOT expects nearly 75,000 cars to bounce between Ankeny and Ames by 2045.
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Source: MSN.com
