I-35 Ankeny->Ames to become six lanes?

[cyinne]

I agree that the amount of cars traveling will remain the same or even increase, but as I found out on I-80 between Omaha and Lincoln the semis were restricted to the middle and right hand lanes and passing only in the left lane- this completely spaced everyone out much better. There were hardly ever any "jams" where I would get trapped among cars that I felt uncomfortable driving with because of excessive speed, etc. There have been way too many of these situations on I-35 between Ames and Ankeny. Adding that 3rd lane will do nothing but help!

 

[CloneGuy8]

In my opinion the best route between Ankeny and Ames is the road that goes through Slater. You still have to stop at Slater, but It's just two stop signs. Much better than going through Huxley on 69

 

[urb1]

Whatever happened to all our extra gas tax dollars going to fix bridges? Seems like all the big projects are widening projects.

 

[kingcy]

Whatever happened to all our extra gas tax dollars going to fix bridges? Seems like all the big projects are widening projects.

The Des Moines Metro seems to be getting a lot of new bridges.

 

[capitalcityguy]

Whatever happened to all our extra gas tax dollars going to fix bridges? Seems like all the big projects are widening projects.

well....some went to finish a four lane highway in northwest Iowa....where population is stagnate...it not slowing declining..

 

[HFCS]

the I 94 I drive is 5 to 6 lanes wide in each direction.

Of course, we have multiple trains too.

Id much rather drive in Chicago that either I80 between Davenport and Des Moines or I35 between Ames and Des Moines.

Much easier to drive with people that know the left lane is for passing.

I commuted in Chicago for 14 years and 90% of my drive was only 3 lanes, always lived in Wicker Park and drove various distances north and west, the least busy highway was still 5x busier than DSM. LA traffic honestly seems easy to me in comparison but I think I luck out the direction I go. The highways in LA are much better, road construction being rare helps a ton. Side street traffic here is on a different level though.

I do agree that between Davenport and Iowa City is nuts with a crazy amount of trucks. Once I got past Aurora that was by far the worst part of my drives back to Ames or Sioux City from Chicago.

 

[SoapyCy]

This is a symptom of the way we've designed cities. We force everyone to go to bigger and bigger roads to get anywhere with the ultimate destination being the freeway.

It's too late to change what exists today but continuing the same growth pattern of ankeny and waukee only makes things worse.

The solution is alternative routes.

 

[alarson]

The Des Moines Metro seems to be getting a lot of new bridges.

Well, the des moines metro keeps getting larger and larger, not just in area but in total population. While iowa's population has been basically flat since 1980, the Des Moines metro is up 70%. I know every time a project is proposed in the des moines area, people from the sticks are complaining on facebook comments about how the money is all going to des moines, but over 20% of the people of Iowa and over 25% of the GDP of the state are in the des moines metro alone. It makes sense that a large chunk of the state's population would see a large chunk of its projects, especially when growth necessitates new infrastructure.

Whatever happened to all our extra gas tax dollars going to fix bridges? Seems like all the big projects are widening projects.

Maintaining level of service is part of maintaining the infrastructure. With more population in des moines every year, and more people travelling the I-35 corridor between ames and des moines and vice versa, it takes projects like these to maintain service.

well....some went to finish a four lane highway in northwest Iowa....where population is stagnate...it not slowing declining..

And can i say it bugs me that that stretch got going almost instantly when the gas taxes passed, but this widening could take 20 years when it is already needed today?

 

[ISUAgronomist]

Everyone I know that does this commute lives in Ankeny. I wonder if part of the problem is lack of affordable housing in Ames?

It's a college town that's why we won't live in Ames.

 

[BCClone]

This is a symptom of the way we've designed cities. We force everyone to go to bigger and bigger roads to get anywhere with the ultimate destination being the freeway.

It's too late to change what exists today but continuing the same growth pattern of ankeny and waukee only makes things worse.

The solution is alternative routes.

There used to be more alternative routes from Ames to Des Moines. But Ankeny and it's expansion has killed some of them. We used to back road down from South Dakota Ave and hook up on the 80 west to south bend. We could tell in the early 90s that that wouldn't last because random stores were popping up along the way

 

[VTXCyRyD]

I drive many miles across many states mostly on interstate. The best thing six lanes helps with is that the semi trucks that have a limited speed do not slow up the traffic as much. Ever been behind two Swift semi's when they are trying to pass each other?

Don't know if they were Swift trucks, but I got stuck behind two in western Iowa on I80 for about 15-20 miles. I was pretty sure they just wanted to look into each others eyes while stroken their gear shifters.

 

[FarminCy]

Don't know if they were Swift trucks, but I got stuck behind two in western Iowa on I80 for about 15-20 miles. I was pretty sure they just wanted to look into each others eyes while stroken their gear shifters.

A high school classmate of mine that drives truck brags that he does this all the time with one of his partners. They do it to get a kick knowing they are pissing people off. Then he gets pissed off when people call him an idiot or an *******. There is a reason seeing him once every 3 years is more than enough for me!!

 

[Buster28]

This is a symptom of the way we've designed cities. We force everyone to go to bigger and bigger roads to get anywhere with the ultimate destination being the freeway.

It's too late to change what exists today but continuing the same growth pattern of ankeny and waukee only makes things worse.

The solution is alternative routes.

Sounds more like your solution is "do nothing and watch it get worse."

 

[FarminCy]

There used to be more alternative routes from Ames to Des Moines. But Ankeny and it's expansion has killed some of them. We used to back road down from South Dakota Ave and hook up on the 80 west to south bend. We could tell in the early 90s that that wouldn't last because random stores were popping up along the way

Ankeny's lack of competent city planning has really hurt any options for the future. I really hope that Grimes, Waukee, WDM, etc are paying attention and learning from Ankeny's lack of vision in the past.

Ames and Ankeny are our two closest "hubs" and it's crazy to think that I've hit a point where I will take Duff any day over dealing with getting around in Ankeny. 10 years ago that was not the case at all.

 

[cycloneG]

Sounds more like your solution is "do nothing and watch it get worse."

The last sentence in his post was his suggested solution.

 

[jkclone]

The last sentence in his post was his suggested solution.

Alternative routes are great, but what are they. 17 and 69 are the only two that really work. 17 is limited by 141 right now so there isn't a real reason to work on that until that gets fixed. 69 has to go through Ankeny and isn't really serving anyone different. Part of the problem is Saylorville and the Des Moines River basically say screw you to a north south route through most of the metro.

 

[Freebird]

In my opinion the best route between Ankeny and Ames is the road that goes through Slater. You still have to stop at Slater, but It's just two stop signs. Much better than going through Huxley on 69

SSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't tell everybody. They will ruin it for us west siders.

 

[Freebird]

Ankeny's lack of competent city planning has really hurt any options for the future. I really hope that Grimes, Waukee, WDM, etc are paying attention and learning from Ankeny's lack of vision in the past.

Ames and Ankeny are our two closest "hubs" and it's crazy to think that I've hit a point where I will take Duff any day over dealing with getting around in Ankeny. 10 years ago that was not the case at all.

Driving in Ankeny makes me want to break things.

 

[SoapyCy]

Driving in Ankeny makes me want to break things.

driving in Ames is just as bad.

many city planning departments are so worried about making sure setbacks and storm water pond sizing are correct they overlook the "planning" part of the job. part of planning is telling decision-makers that some ideas are bad and there are alternatives. a few months back we had a huge thread about the long-term budget issues causes by culs-de-sac and a forced street hierarchy. Ankeny (and basically all the western suburbs) are so mesmerized by capturing the growth they all fight for the same exact thing. The end result is more and more people in their cars (and no, i'm not saying cars are bad) taking the same routes to further and further places that are the exact same as they places they are driving through.

the long-term solution is to not mandate such accommodation for cars which only forces people to take cars everywhere. if cities worked together instead of against each other they could have a more uniform development pattern across jurisdictions that would spread traffic out.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Wasn't there serious talk 5-10 years ago about some kind of "northeast connector" that would start around Polk City, move eastward along the north edge of Ankeny, curve south and then hook up with I-80 somewhere around Altoona or Bondurant? Wonder whatever became of that proposition.

There was allot of discussion and public meetings regarding the by-pass. While it is not dead,the plans are collecting dust. With the way Ankeny is expanding to the north there is a better chance of it becoming dead.