Stumbled upon this, really interesting to me.
Check out the campus town area around the 7:00minute mark.
Check out the campus town area around the 7:00minute mark.
Old 30
- Thread starter CloneFanInKC
- Start date
I love it when this Iowa DOT video makes the rounds here every 2 years or so. 
KidSilverhair
Well-Known Member
Not Highway 30, but I remember riding on some of those narrow two-lane highways in southeast Iowa at the posted limit of 70 mph back before I was old enough to get my license. No wonder the number of traffic deaths was so high back then …
It has always been interesting to me how many different routes through Marion and CR that 30/Lincoln Highway took over the years as it slowly got straightened out to the straightaway across the south side that we know it as now.
Speaking of old Highway 30, the 3-mile brick stretch of the original highway connecting west Omaha to Elkhorn is sort of a travel back in time, if you ever get the time.
Mom reminds us that when she was younger, 151 from Dubuque south was not only 70mph limit and 2 lane, but had CURBS on it rather than shoulders.
That looks pretty close to what it was like when I attended. Looks like 1957 or a year or two later; I arrived on campus in 1962.
Speaking of speed limits, it wasn't too many years before this film was made that the speed limit on Iowa highways was "Reasonable and Proper" if not posted differently.
We still do have one but it's a local restaurant place instead of the coffee chain.
KidSilverhair
Well-Known Member
Yep, same for me. The highway from Eldon out to where the high school was located 1) was a narrow 2-lane; 2) with curbs; 3) had a pair of nearly 90-degree corners; and 4) had a 70-mph speed limit.
KidSilverhair
Well-Known Member
As the years go by and highways evolve, it’s interesting to me to see places like Marshalltown: the original Lincoln Highway went through the city, then they built a bypass on the south side, then as that area got built-up and congested they built another four-lane bypass of the bypass.
I’m kind of a fan of the Lincoln Highway, I’ve got a few books on the subject. I was actually trying to drive on the old route coming back from Ames to Cedar Rapids the day of the derecho (which caught me by Belle Plaine, that was a horrific experience I never want to have again).
What was the logic behind building rural highways with curbs? That seems so obviously stupid in terms of trapping water, and also the added cost.
You used to step off the steps of Sacred Heart Church in Fillmore basically into the highway in those days.
I lived on "old 59" back in the day before they put in "new 59"
The Old 59 stretch from Harlan to Defiance is a low-key drag strip with a few rollercoaster hills sprinkled in. Memories!
Timely thread as I recently saw that funding authorization was being voted on to finally complete the remaining 2-lane sections of the current Hwy 30 to 4-lane across the state. $1.5B project
