Avenue of the Saints eastbound overpass work begins Friday

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

People who remember traveling on the Avenue of the Saints near Floyd last summer will be experiencing “deja vu all over again” as the divided highway is converted back to two-way traffic the end of this week for the beginning of the construction season.

Pete Hjelmstad, District 2 field services coordinator with the Iowa Department of Transportation office in Mason City, said the plan is to divide the new eastbound lanes of U.S. 18/Iowa 27 into two-way head-on traffic beginning Friday so that crews can start reconstructing the westbound lanes.

That part of the project will be similar to the eastbound construction project that took place last summer, including building an overpass bridge and entrance and exit ramps.

Originally planned to begin around the end of the month, Hjelmstad said the schedule was moved ahead a week – “weather permitting.”

The new entrance and exit ramps that were created to get on and off the eastbound lanes will have traffic signals installed, and the ramps will also have two-way traffic during construction to allow access to Highway 218/Monroe Street going north into Floyd and to County Road 44/Quarry Road going south.

“All traffic will use the ramps, just like at the intersection of two two-lane roads,” Hjelmstad said.

He said no detours were going to be needed this year to make the switch from the divided highway to two-way traffic. He said speed would be reduced on that section of the highway and reduced further on the ramps during the summer while two-way traffic is present.

The schedule will be similar to last year, with the new westbound overpass lanes expected to open in late fall, he said.

At that point the new interchange will be complete, with divided east and west traffic on the Avenue of the Saints no longer having to slow down or face cross traffic entering at grade-level intersections in the Floyd area.

Serious – sometimes deadly – accidents where vehicles pulled out or turned in front of other vehicles entering and exiting the highway were part of the reason the state decided to spend the $23 million-plus on the elevated interchange project.

Hjelmstad so far the project has gone very smoothly.

“It’s been going well. We were very happy with how things went last year the way traffic moves through there. We hope for the same this year,” he said.

“I say it all the time and I hope people don’t just let it slide off their back, but watch 511ia.org or the app, because updates get put on there,” he said.