Highway 20 project reaches another marker

Sioux City Journal

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Highway 20 project reaches another marker

Like the hilly geography of western Iowa, the pursuit of a four-laned Highway 20 from one side of this state to the other is a story filled with peaks and valleys.

As detailed by staff writer Bret Hayworth ... the project is closing in on another peak.

By Dec. 1, another 20 miles of Highway 20 - from Moorland to Iowa Highway 4 two miles west and four miles north of Rockwell City - will open to four lanes of traffic. Some 75 percent of the highway, Hayworth reported, then will be four lanes, with 68 miles on our side of the state still waiting to be finished.

In all honesty, we for many years struggled to retain confidence in the ultimate completion of Highway 20, our uneasiness fueled by a lack of tangible progress. However, as we have written in this space before, our faith in Highway 20 - a project so essential to the economic future of Siouxland - has been restored in the last two years.

In both rhetoric and action, we sense a renewed commitment to getting Highway 20 done from within the governor's office, the Statehouse, the Iowa Transportation Commission and the halls of Congress. At home, we hear Highway 20 discussed in more optimistic tones.

As is the case with any public project of this size and scope, scores of individuals and entities share in the credit for progress on Highway 20.

Many local, state and federal elected and appointed officials have advocated and secured funding. Through dogged, unwavering commitment to championing the project, members of the Highway 20 Corridor Association have remained steadfast through project ups and downs and twists and turns.

Today, the Highway 20 finish line is visible on the horizon.

The next big step will be completion of 25 four-lane miles between Rockwell City and Early by 2013. Then work will begin in segments on the final 40-plus-mile stretch between Early and Moville.

In a recent editorial board discussion with us, U.S. Rep. Steve King said he's confident the Highway 20 project will be done by 2018 - a time frame echoed in Hayworth's story today by Highway 20 Corridor Association spokeswoman Ann Trimble-Ray.

We all would like to see the project wrapped up sooner, but in the case of Highway 20 the old adage about better late than never rings true.