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Iowa 92 between Ainsworth, Columbus Junction, closes once more
Expect delays commuting between Lousia, Washington counties for the next few months
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
AINSWORTH — A stretch of Iowa Highway 92 between Ainsworth and Columbus Junction closed for a second round of extensive construction Monday morning, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation’s Fairfield office.
In a press release from May 28, the state DOT said roadwork was scheduled to start at 7 a.m. Monday, June 2, and would last until roughly mid-October as contractors “reconstruct the drainage structures and highway” from Louisa County Road X-17 to Second Street in Columbus Junction.
It’s the second phase of a project totaling roughly $25 million in state and federal dollars, according to Iowa DOT District 5 Construction Engineer Christy VanBuskirk.
In an interview late last year, she said she hoped the second phase would go faster than the first, which was delayed by several months largely thanks to run-ins with previously unrecorded reinforced steel and a large subdrain beneath the pavement.
“This next year, it’s going to be a shorter section, but you just never know, sometimes, what you’re going to find when you start digging,” VanBuskirk said.
The second phase begins considerably further east than the first, and VanBuskirk said travelers on the road would have a new detour route this time — with one end near Cotter and the other within Columbus Junction’s city limits, traveling south through Columbus City.
“You’re detouring traffic about three miles before you really need to,” she said. “But if you look at the county road system and the city road systems, there really is no good way to detour traffic any shorter than that.”
Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com
