116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Final lane openings on 80/380 interchange expected in April
Iowa DOT contractors pouring concrete for medians this month
Workers with United Contractors, Inc., use a slipform paver to make a line of concrete median barrier along the southbound lane of Interstate 380 at the Interstate 80 interchange in Coralville, Iowa, on Thursday, March 7, 2024. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
Tristen Parsons brushes the side of a concrete barrier as he and workers with United Contractors, Inc., use a slipform paver to make a line of concrete median barrier along the southbound lane of Interstate 380 at the Interstate 80 interchange in Coralville, Iowa, on Thursday, March 7, 2024. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
Workers with United Contractors, Inc., finish the surfaces after a slipform paver creates a line of concrete median barrier along the southbound lane of Interstate 380 at the Interstate 80 interchange in Coralville, Iowa, on Thursday, March 7, 2024. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
Many motorists still are enjoying the novelty of all ramps being open at the new Interstate 80/Interstate 380 interchange, largely completed in August.
But there still is work going on at the massive roadway reconfiguration.
Contractors this month are pouring concrete for median barriers on I-380, near where it becomes Highway 218. The I-80 median barrier was completed in mid-January and a temporary barrier was removed in early February, said Hugh Holak, resident construction engineer for the Iowa Department of Transportation’s District 6, which includes Linn and Johnson counties.
“Once done, we have rumble strips to install on the median shoulder on both I-80 & on I-380,” Holak wrote in an email. “Then also (in) late April, will have to add one more lane both directions on the left side on I-380/US-218.”
Once all the lanes are open, the Iowa DOT or contractors will do finish work, which includes replacing some cracked sections of concrete in active lanes and some right of way fence, Holak said. Most of the work will be done by the end of April. Some minor work continuing in the fall won’t interfere with traffic, he said.
The Iowa DOT offered contractors nearly $5.4 million in incentives to meet early deadlines related to closed ramps and other closures. For example, the ramp to and from Highway 218 going south was supposed to be done before Nov. 17, 2023, but the ramp was opened months earlier on Aug. 30, Holak said.
“These deadlines were all achieved,” he said.
The state did not provide incentives for median barriers or connected projects, like paving Jasper Avenue west of I-380.
The $387 million interchange project, which started in 2018, replaced the cloverleaf intersection’s four loops with directional ramps. Contractors widened I-80 on both sides of the interchange, I-380 north of I-80 and Highway 218 south of I-80.
The changes will make a typical trip 35 percent more reliable and reduce traffic delays by 64 million hours over the next 30 years, Iowa DOT leaders said during a ribbon-cutting ceremony in August.
Also part of the multiyear project was extending the Clear Creek Trail under the interchange. The quarter-mile of new concrete helps cyclists connect with a trail system that eventually will go from Iowa City to F.W. Kent Park, west of Tiffin.
The Iowa DOT’s portion of the trail work cost $186,720.
Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com
Daily Newsletters