History
The first section of I-380 opened to traffic on September 19, 1973. That section connected The Eastern Iowa Airport to I-80 at Coralville. Within three years, the interstate had been extended into Cedar Rapids at the Cedar River. The bridge which crossed the river would not open until June 1979. By the end of 1981, I-380 was a continuous road to the Coldstream Avenue/Glass Road interchange. The interstate was originally scheduled to be open by Christmas 1984, but weather delays pushed back the construction timetable. The last section of I-380 to be completed opened on September 12, 1985.
In 1985, US 218 was bypassed around Iowa City and Coralville, joining I-380 at the I-80 interchange. US 218 to Cedar Rapids was replaced by Iowa 965. In the early 1990s, most of I-380 was designated as part of the Avenue of the Saints corridor, which connects St. Louis, Missouri, to St. Paul, Minnesota. Avenue of the Saints route markers were erected along the route the next year. In August 2001, the Avenue of the Saints in Iowa was given a single designation, Iowa 27, to facilitate following the route through the state.
I-380 crosses two of Iowa's major rivers, the Iowa and the Cedar. Both rivers have affected the interstate during major floods, as the case was in 1993 and in 2008. During the Great Flood of 1993, I-380 and Iowa 965 were both closed at the Iowa River's Coralville Lake reservoir between July 13 and July 28. The roads reopened after the lake's waters receded enough to allow Department of Transportation inspectors to check the three bridges over the water.
The great Iowa flood of 2008 affected the same section of I-380 at the Iowa River in much the same fashion as in 1993. I-380 and former Iowa 965 were closed at the Iowa River on June 13 until July 3. In Cedar Rapids, flooding did not close I-380, the only bridge not to close, though traffic was restricted through the city. The flooding damage was much more severe in Cedar Rapids than in Iowa City. The Cedar River crested at over 31 feet (9.4 m) on June 13, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.
Read more about this topic: Interstate 380 (Iowa)
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