New Iowa road maps are available

AMES – The new Iowa road maps are out.

Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) officials announced Friday that the latest edition of one of the state's most popular publications -- the Iowa Transportation Map -- is now available at locations throughout Iowa and on the Internet.

DOT spokesman Mark Hansen said printed copies of the 2009 map are available at interstate highway rest areas, Iowa's 19 welcome centers, DOT driver's license stations and DOT district offices. An electronic version of the new map, accompanied by an assortment of city detail maps, also is available at the department's www.iowadot.gov Web site.

Hansen said the 2009 map contains more than 600 revisions, including the numbering of more than 100 interchanges. Other additions this year include the U.S. 34 bypass near Fairfield; the completed four-lane Iowa 60 corridor from Le Mars to the northern Iowa border; interchange numbers on the four-lane, divided primary highways; and a winter safety tip for drivers entitled “Ice and Snow, Take it Slow.”

The map also shows all other highways, major county roads, and major streets in the state's 16 largest cities; airports; rail lines; an index listing the cities shown on the map along with their populations; and a mileage chart for calculating the distance between selected Iowa cities, he added.

Hansen said there were no towns removed or added to this year's transportation map. The cover of the printed map features a design consistent with tourism publications of the Iowa Department of Economic Development's tourism division, which distributes nearly 500,000 maps a year.