Iowa Primary Highway System - History

History

See also: Good Roads Movement, United States Numbered Highways, Interstate Highway System, and List of former Iowa state highways

At the turn of the 20th century, roads in Iowa were suited for horse and buggy and ill-suited for automobiles. As more Iowans purchased automobiles, the Iowa legislature set up in 1904 a commission at Iowa State College in Ames to handle issues that arose concerning travel and safety. In 1904, less than 2 percent, or just over 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of public roads in Iowa had been improved with gravel or broken stone. The first task of the Iowa State Highway Commission, now the Iowa Department of Transportation, was to study Iowa's problematic roads. At the time, roads were merely dusty dirt trails when dry, and quagmires of mud when wet. By 1906, every county was maintaining its dirt road with drags. Designed by Missourian E. Ward King, road drags were a cost-effective way to smooth out dirt roads, costing as much as $3.00 ($78.00, adjusted for inflation) to build. In 1913, the Commission separated from Iowa State College and gained control over county and local transportation officials, who were responsible for road construction and maintenance. The Iowa Highway Commission did not gain jurisdiction over public roads until 1924.

The predecessor of the primary highway system was the registered route system. Organizations, such as the Lincoln Highway Association, volunteered to sponsor and register certain roads with the highway commission. Each organization chose their colors and designed route markers to guide motorists along the way. Eventually, confusion reigned and the highway commission took action. Beginning in 1920, primary road numbers were assigned to registered routes. Route numbers were assigned so they would match those of neighboring states – Primary Road Number 1 (No. 1) was assigned to the Jefferson Highway, the Lincoln Highway became No. 6, and the Red Ball Route became No. 40.

In 1925, the American Association of State Highway Officials approved a national numbering system for roads, which quickly replaced the registered route system. The new U.S. Highway system grew and improved for thirty years, until Interstate highways were created. Iowa renumbered some primary roads in 1926; marking them with a unique number as to not duplicate the new U.S. Highways. Iowa highways were signed with a circle with the route's number beneath the word Iowa.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, highway paving had begun in earnest. In September 1929 alone, the Iowa State Higwhay Commission spent $3 million ($40.6 million, adjusted for inflation) on road construction, with two-thirds of that spent on highway paving. By the end of 1929, a the first roads connecting two state borders neared completion. The Lincoln Highway from Ames to Clinton made travel to Chicago easier, while the Jefferson Highway from Lamoni to Ames facilitated travel to Kansas City. These two new roads also made travel easier between Iowa's two most populous cities, Des Moines and Cedar Rapids.

In the 1950s, the Iowa State Highway Commission planned an east-west toll road across the state, roughly along the current Interstate 80 corridor. When the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 created the Interstate Highway System, plans for the toll road were scrapped with great fervor. In Iowa, interstate corridors were designed to follow existing U.S. Highway corridors – Interstate 29 followed U.S. Route 75 and U.S. Route 275, Interstate 35 followed U.S. Route 65 and U.S. Route 69, and Interstate 80 followed U.S. Route 6. The first section of interstate highway in Iowa, a section of I-35 and of I-80 near West Des Moines, opened on September 21, 1958. Over the next 30 years, sections of interstate were completed and opened for traffic. As the interstates grew and expanded, many U.S. Highways were truncated at, relocated onto, or replaced by interstates. The last section of Interstate 380 to be completed, was opened on September 12, 1985. In 1959, the nascent Interstate Highway System was growing while the existing primary highway system was beginning to show its age. The 58th General Assembly passed a resolution creating the Iowa Highway Study Committee, consisting of senators, congressmen, and representatives from the Iowa League of Municipalities, county engineers, and the Iowa State Highway Commission. The study committee hired two consulting firms to find the physical and financial needs of the primary highway system for the next twenty years. The study committee itself held frequent meetings across the state to gather public opinions on the state of the highway system. In its final report to the 59th General Assembly, the study committee recommended:

• Limiting the primary highway system to 8,400 miles (13,500 km) including extensions into municipalities.
• Transferring 1,902 miles (3,061 km) of local service highways to local jurisdictions or a separate division of primary highways.
• Classifying the primary highway system into two groups – 1,928 miles (3,103 km) of freeways and 6,472 miles (10,416 km) of other primary roads.
• Reclassifying county roads into trunk, feeder, and local secondary roads.
• Classifying municipal roads not in the primary highway system into arterials and access streets.
• Distributing 55% of the road use tax fund for use on primary roads, 30% to the counties for secondary roads, and 15% to municipalities for local roads.

The study committee urged caution on immediately adopting their report, instead recommending to adopt the findings over time. As a result, in 1980, a large number of local service primary highways were turned over to counties and local jurisdictions.

On January 1, 1969, many highways in Iowa were renumbered, largely creating the numbered routes which remain today.

In 2002, the Road Use Tax Fund Committee (RUTF), a mix of city, county, and state transportation officials, met to review and recommend changes to Iowa's public road system. The report was necessitated by increasing costs to maintain the highway system and a level of funding that was not keeping up with the rising costs. The RUTF committee had two major recommendations:

• Transferring 712 miles (1,146 km) of primary highways to county and city governments.
• Transferring farm-to-market road extensions in cities under 500 population to the counties.

On April 17, 2003, the Iowa Senate introduced a bill, Senate File 451, which would allow the mass transfer. The bill was passed by the Senate and House and was signed by Governor Tom Vilsack on May 23, 2003. Over 600 miles (970 km) of state highways, mostly short spur routes and segments bypassed after new construction, were turned over to county or municipal governments on July 1, 2003.

Typically, when the Iowa Department of Transportation transfers a highway to a county or local jurisdiction, the DOT must ensure the highway is in good condition or provide the county compensation to repair the highway. Senate File 451, codified as Iowa Code §306.8A, instead created a fund for the maintenance of newly transferred highways. Until 2013, 1.75% of the primary highway fund will be directed to this fund to compensate counties receiving highways. Over $1.1 million has been allocated to counties for the August 2009 – July 2010 period.

Iowa has over 800 miles (1,300 km) of Interstate highways, over 3,800 miles (6,100 km) of U.S. Highways, and over 5,100 miles (8,200 km) of state highways, many of which overlap. Today, the primary highway system represents over 8% of the total 114,000-mile (183,000 km) public road miles in the state.