60 Years Later, Iowa’s Highway 20 Is Finally Done

From Dubuque to Sioux City, U.S. Highway 20 is finally complete.

Extending 302 miles with part of it passing through Waterloo, it took 60 years for the four-lane highway to be completely finished from one Iowa boarder to the other.

Starting with a three-mile stretch in the western Iowa town of Moville, it was almost 60 years to the day that the highway was finished. The first part of the highway opened on October 19, 1958.

Shirley Philips of Sac City and president of the U.S. Highway 20 Corridor Association even admitted that she didn't think she would see the highway completed in her lifetime. She spent 28 years lobbying for state officials to support the Highway 20 project. One reason it has taken so long is many of the expressway's boosters died years ago.

The final 40-mile stretch went from Moville to Woodbury County and widening the road to from two-lanes to four cost $215 million, with help of a 10-cent per gallon gasoline and diesel fuel tax that was approved in 2015.

There will be a ribbon-cutting in Holstein on Friday at 3 PM. Gov. Kim Reynolds is scheduled to be in attendance.

Sure hope it doesn't take 60 years to finish University Ave..