The 4 in 34 should mean four lanes

I don’t know if it is an exaggeration or not, but it may cost $1 billion and may take as many seconds to finish, but it still sounds like a good, fair project for Iowa to have.

That project is making U.S. Highway 34 from Glenwood to Osceola four lanes.

For months we have heard the discussion, details and drama behind President Biden’s infrastructure plan. Although there are critics of the plan since it gets into high-speed internet and some social issues, like child care, the traditional definition of infrastructure still exists. His plan states 20,000 miles of highways will be modernized.

Making that two-lane highway four lanes will easily be considered modern. Of that 100 miles or so stretching from Glenwood to Osceola is .5 percent of 20,000. Yes, .5 %.

About nine years ago, I remember some discussion among various business owners in Southwest Iowa who had wanted to form a formal organization to begin a plan of converting U.S. Highway 34 from two lanes to four. But that group never got enough momentum. So 34 is still two lanes.

Converting two-lane highways to four is not new to Iowa. In 2018, U.S. Highway 20′s expansion to four lane was complete. It only took it 60 years for that project to get done. Now, you can go four-lane between Sioux City to Dubuque and pass through Fort Dodge and Waterloo on the same road. That project was completed mainly because of legislator’s 10-cent increase in gasoline taxes a few years prior that pay for road maintenance. If that additional revenue was not there, the road does not get complete to become four lanes.

During Iowa Gov. Chet Culver’s administration, four lanes of highway were complete from metro-Des Moines to Burlington in Southeast Iowa. That was a combination of Iowa Highway 163 and U.S. Highway 34, which had already been four lanes in various sections between the Mississippi River and the state capital. The last section complete was a bypass of Highway 34 at Fairfield.

It’s time for another section of four-lane road to be complete, and Southwest Iowa deserves to be treated the same compared to other regions of the state that have four lane roads.

The easiest argument against four lanes on Highway 34 in our region of the state is there is not the traffic count or population between Mills and Clarke counties to justify the project. My response to that is those four lanes should ease the traffic count on Interstate 80 between the Missouri River and Des Moines. It should not be considered because of the road’s traffic count. It does not matter to me what day of the week or time of day, I-80 traffic in western Iowa is heavy.

If you look at the history of four-lane highway development in Iowa since the mid 1950s, you would think Southwest Iowa has never had the population or traffic count to justify having a four-lane highway. The development of Interstate 29 and Interstate 80 is the only four-lane road in our part of the state. Not having other four-lane highways may be another reason why Southwest Iowa is either discounted or forgotten. Even knowing larger school enrollments and the number of school districts in our corner in the 1960s were apparently not enough to consider adding four-lane highways.

Now, there is a short stretch of four lanes on 34 from I-29 to east of Glenwood, before the U.S. 275 intersection. There is also a short stretch of four lanes on 34 at the intersection of U.S. Highway 71, but that was probably intentional knowing the expected traffic at that area and the hill on Highway 34 is on to make it easier for traffic with trucks exiting and entering Highway 34.

I don’t like taking farm ground out of production for almost any idea. I don’t like taking property off tax rolls, let alone the cumulative acres that would not be used for grain and livestock production. That puts more pressure on the existing farm ground to produce.

I’m not sure how many acres of land would be needed from Glenwood to Osceola to create another set of lanes on Highway 34. You also have to consider the right of way and all medians. Another gasoline tax increase would have to happen to fund that project, plus knowing all the other highway projects planned in the state.

But I am for road improvements and for Southwest Iowa to have similar treatments than other parts of the state. I don’t want benefits for Southwest Iowa to go down the road.