The Iowa Department of Transportation took action at its meeting Tuesday in Shenandoah, to single out some sections of Highway 30 as priority projects. D-O-T spokesman Craig Markley says there are four specific segments of the highway. “They are the Missouri Valley bypass and then the stretch of U-S 30 from Ogden to Jefferson, from Lisbon to Stanwood, and then from Calamus to Dewitt,” Markley says. “They did consider and action to add those as priority corridors and that action was approved.”

Commissioner David Rose of Clinton requested the vote on the Highway 30 corridors. Markley says “There’s no commitment behind this action for future programming, all it is is an identification of what hey want to keep track of and prioritize for future consideration,” Markley explains. “We’ve had projects in the past that were identified as priority corridors that ultimately didn’t get approved. And then obviously we’ve had a lot of corridors that haven’t been identified as priority corridors that have been approved.”

Markley says it is a designation that has been used many times in the past. “Past priority corridors have included U-S 20, U-S 61 and then also other sections of U-S 30. For example, the Mt. Vernon-Lisbon bypass and the stretch of U-S 30 in Tama and Benton County both have been identified as priority corridors in the past — and both are under construction as we speak,” according to Markley.

The next step for a section of highway that’s designated a priority corridor would be to go onto the five-year construction plan that’s updated annually. Markley says that would be when the commission would take binding action to program the corridor for construction funding. He says it may not be next five-year program, but as they consider future programs that would be when they might be put in for construction funds.

(Radio Iowa)