U.S. Route 52 in Iowa - History

History

U.S. Route 52 was designated in Iowa in 1935, replacing U.S. Route 55 from Primary Road No. 117 near Sabula to the Minnesota state line north of Burr Oak. US 52 crossed the Mississippi River at the recently-constructed Savanna–Sabula Bridge, which opened in 1932. The section of old-US 55 from Primary Road No. 117 to Dubuque was overlapped by U.S. Route 67 until 1967 when US 67 was truncated back to the intersection with US 52 on Iowa 64.

From 1963 to 1967, US 52 was realigned from Dubuque to Luxemburg to follow U.S. Route 20 to Dyersville and Iowa Highway 136 to Luxemburg while its original alignment was rebuilt. During this time, Iowa 136, which ended at US 52 in Luxemburg, was truncated back to US 20 at Dyersville, but it was redesignated along this segment after US 52 returned to its old alignment.

In the mid-1990s, US 52 / US 61 / US 151 in Dubuque were shifted onto a new expressway through downtown Dubuque, which caused the three U.S. highways to no longer intersect US 20 directly. Iowa Highway 946 was designated as a connector route to provide direct access to US 20 from the three U.S. highways.

In April 2013, the city of Dubuque and surrounding jurisdictions proposed rerouting US 52 so that it would go from Luxemburg to Dyersville to meet up with US 20 and from there the highway would share an alignment with US 20 until reaching the proposed Southwest Arterial. US 52 would then be routed on to the Southwest Arterial, bypassing the city of Dubuque and heading southwest to US 61 / US 151, where it would then be linked to the existing highway US 52 on to Bellevue and Sabula.