The Wever Bypass excavations: Highway archaeology along the Great River Road in southeast Iowa.

This is a story about a highway project near the small town of Wever, Iowa, and an American Indian village that existed at the location prior to the Europeans' arrival. The culture that lived in this village existed in a 10 state region of the Upper Midwest and may have been the ancestors of tribes living in the Midwest when European explorers entered the region. An archaeological recovery of information from the site was undertaken by the Iowa Department of Transportation because four-lane construction of U.S. 61 could not be accomplished without destroying most of the site. This site proved to be one of the richest archaeological finds in the State of Iowa. ǂc Iowa Department of Transportation.

A Literature Review of Urban Bypass Studies, 1992

Urban places attract most highway travel because more people are to be per acre in urban places than elsewhere. In the beginning of highway development the objective was to provide an all-weather road for the rural people to get to town and back to their farms, but there was no consideration of getting motor vehicles through the town to the opposite side. With the development of intercity travel, it soon became apparent that travel through the urban areas would have to be given consideration along with the travel to and from the urban areas. This consideration led to the urban bypass, a provision in highway location whereby the traveler may get to the opposite side of the urban area without going through it, or at least not through the central business district. Bypasses, although highly desired by the through travelers, were not welcomed by local business interests on the basis that the community would suffer a reduction in retail trade. Some discussion of the pros and cons of bypasses and their consequences as observed from experience will shed light upon this type of local highway. The bypass report summaries in this document were based on interviews with businessmen and community leaders of cities that have actually experienced firsthand the impacts of a highway bypass. Several of the studies were conducted by newspaper reporters, city council members and residents of Iowa cities.

Phase I Environmental Site Assessment of the Proposed State Highway 60 Bypass Around Le Mars, Iowa, Plymouth County, Abridged Phase I, 2001

This report serves as a record of the Assessment activities, which consisted of a review of local, county, state, and federal records, interviews, and site reconnaissance. Sections 2 through 4 of this report document information gathered. during the records search and site visits for the Assessment. Section 5 presents the findings and conclusions of the Assessment.

U. S. 61 Muscatine Bypass Corridor

This report was prepared for the Iowa Department of Transportation to document the results of a comprehensive study of the US 61 bypass corridor in Muscatine, Iowa. The focus of the study was to address community concerns regarding traffic safety and traffic operations. In completing the study, accident and traffic volume data was collected and analyzed. Input from the public and elected officials of the Muscatine community was also obtained. The goals of the project were to: Accurately identify the nature of the types of problems and the locations where the problems were occurring; Formulate a range of possible remedial measures; Analyze and test those proposed measures; Inform the community of the nature of the traffic problems and of the proposed remedies; Seek feedback from the community on those proposed remedies; Develop a comprehensive list of recommended improvements; Develop cost estimates and assign priorities to those possible improvements. An additional goal of this project was to identify possible Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) measures that could be used to address the safety and operations problems that have developed along this corridor. The proposed ITS measures were also to be analyzed to determine their likely benefits and their likely success if used at other locations elsewhere in Iowa.

Supplemental Pre-Location Report, U.S. 18, Mason City Bypass I-35 to Rudd : Cerro Gordo and Floyd Counties, 1992

The purpose of this report is to compile and update the prior studies in order to select viable alternatives for inclusion in the Environmental Assessment to be prepared for this project.